Growing up on the wooded slopes of Noah's Mountain, three sisters are trapped in poverty and violence. A year after fourteen-year old Tressa Stone is sold into a horrific marriage by her uncaring father, she finally escapes a vicious husband, nearly five times her age. Pretending to be an adult, Tressa now lives and works in Columbus, Ohio. Her employer, Barb Harris, and landlady, Sally Towns, have not only taken this fiery-haired young woman under their caring wings, but are also encouraging her to get a GED. When Tressa's husband, Zeff Season, attacks her on a lonely city street, Dustin Nash comes to her rescue. Dustin, a Marine Sergeant, is attracted to the mysterious young woman. However, discovering their age difference, he must be content to exchange friendly letters with her after his sudden deployment to Iraq. Following her divorce, Tressa also gains legal emancipation from her father. Working grueling night shifts as a waitress at the Glowing Lantern Cafe, she struggles to save money, find a home, and get an education in order to give her younger sisters, still trapped in a vicious cycle of neglect and violence, a better life. No sacrifice seems too difficult since Tressa plans to steal Johnel and Promise from Noah's Mountain. Back on the mountain, thirteen year-old Johnel has also assumed adult responsibilities. Expected to perform household tasks, abandoned by her missing mother, she copes with her father's drunken rages by writing fanciful stories in a hidden journal. As the middle child, brown-haired, brown-eyed Johnel fears that her father is also planning to sale her, as a child bride, to his violent friend. Golden-haired Promise Stone, the baby of the family, is stalked by a revengeful bully. Already a skilled artist at eleven, she views the world through blue eyes that constantly search out its beauty. Yet, not all of her pictures are designed around beautiful subjects, for many of those drawings hidden in a rocky crevice, depict the brutal events she's witnessed."