Professor Merrideth Randall's day job is teaching history at McKendree College. But after hours she turns to her first love, historical research. And she has a tool that other historians can only dream of-computer software that rewinds time Using the program, she gets a first-hand look at the lives of the courageous pioneers of the Illinois Country who withstood Indian attacks, hardship, and loneliness to settle there in the 1780s. One of the settlers is James Garretson, who risks his life to take the Gospel to the very tribe that wreaked havoc on his family. Merrideth is amazed that he could forgive a crime so huge. Hero or fool, James Garretson is the ancestor of her colleague Brett Garrison, a physics professor with rock-star status on campus. Amazingly, Brett seems to be pursuing her-in spite of the fact that everyone knows dating a co-workers is career suicide. Merrideth would love to tell him that he inherited his black hair and green eyes from James Garretson, and that his aunt's poetry is eerily similar to the verse his wife Isabelle used to compose at her spinning wheel. But discretion is not Brett's strong suit. She is determined to safeguard her program, and she has secrets about herself that she'd just as soon he didn't find out either. One virtue Brett does have is patience, and he's quite willing to wait for Merrideth to figure things out.