Reminiscent of a Jane Austen novel, this engaging story of a determined young spinster transformed by the power of love offers a vivid portrait of late nineteenth-century Appalachia.Strangers have come to Viney's mountain, and she is furious! The arrogant invaders are leveling acres of forest in her beloved home in the Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee to establish a Utopian democratic settlement in 1880, the dream of English writer and labor pioneer Thomas Hughes. Sixteen-year-old Viney Walker is determined to sabotage their plans, but her sister Lizzie is thrilled, convinced that she will find a wealthy husband among the newcomers. However, the independent-minded Viney hasn't reckoned on Charlie Breckenridge, a handsome Englishman who takes a fancy to her. She feigns a relationship with Charlie to put an end to the pressure from her family to find a man; but her plot backfires in surprising ways, changing Viney and her mountain forever.