Massachusetts, 1861. The American Civil War has been raging for almost a year when Emmett joins the 28th Massachusetts Infantry with the promise of serving his country under the green flag of the Irish Brigade. But soon he finds himself struggling to reconcile the piles of dead Irishmen with his own motivations for fighting.

In Lowell, Rosaleen seizes the opportunity to write for a newspaper funded by Boston's business elite. She needs to convince the Irish of Massachusetts that emancipating the slaves is inevitable and just. When letters from Emmett stop coming, Rosaleen cuts a deal with a powerful businessman that will take her deep into the underbelly of wartime economics in New Orleans.

Told from dual perspectives, the third book in The Paddy Series is the story of a family forced to choose between what they thought was right and what they know is irreplaceable.