Jiles, Paulette

In the aftermath of the Civil War Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, an aging itinerant news reader, agrees to transport a recently rescued captive of the Kiowa back to her relatives in San Antonio. Four years earlier, a band of Kiowa raiders killed Johanna's parents and sister; sparing the little girl, they raised her as one of their own. Johanna has forgotten the English language, tries to escape at every opportunity, and refuses to act "civilized." Yet as the miles pass, the two lonely survivors begin to trust each other, forming a bond that marks the difference between life and death in this dangerous land. Arriving in San Antonio, the reunion is neither happy nor welcome as her aunt and uncle, whom she does not remember, regard her as an unwanted burden. A respectable man, Captain Kidd is faced with a terrible choice: abandon the girl to her fate or become--in the eyes of the law--a kidnapper himself.

In the aftermath of the Civil War Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, an aging itinerant news reader, agrees to transport a recently rescued captive of the Kiowa back to her relatives in San Antonio. Four years earlier, a band of Kiowa raiders killed Johanna's parents and sister; sparing the little girl, they raised her as one of their own. Johanna has forgotten the English language, tries to escape at every opportunity, and refuses to act "civilized." Yet as the miles pass, the two lonely survivors begin to trust each other, forming a bond that marks the difference between life and death in this dangerous land. Arriving in San Antonio, the reunion is neither happy nor welcome as her aunt and uncle, whom she does not remember, regard her as an unwanted burden. A respectable man, Captain Kidd is faced with a terrible choice: abandon the girl to her fate or become--in the eyes of the law--a kidnapper himself.

After facing the loss of her family during the Civil War, eighteen-year-old Adair is imprisoned in a filthy St. Louis women's prison, and a Union major who interviews her falls in love and promises to return for her.

After the Union Militia arrives to set her house on fire, driving her brother into hiding and taking her widowed father away, Adair Colley sets out on foot with her two young sisters hoping to find a safe haven in the winter mountains.

At the end of the war, Britt Johnson, a freed slave, travels with his family from Kentucky to start a new life in Texas.

After their father's death, the three Stoddard girls travel with their mother back to the family farm where they struggle to survive during the Dust Bowl and put all of their faith in the success of a wildcat oil well.

After the Union Militia arrives to set her house on fire, driving her brother into hiding and taking her widowed father away, Adair Colley sets out on foot with her two young sisters hoping to find a safe haven in the winter mountains.