In 1861, with the American Civil War escalating, eleven-year-old Jennine Parkington is brought by her father to live on a cotton plantation in Georgia with her twelve-year-old cousin Annise—the cousin she intensely dislikes. While awaiting the return of her father from his covert Northern military duties, Jennine becomes caught up in her Southern family's dangerous espionage and Underground Railroad activities. In the three-and-a-half years that follow, Jennine comes to love and admire her independent and fearless cousin, finding comfort and joy in her company and the mysterious treasures of a long-forgotten secret attic.