A classic American novel inspired by a real house In 1843, newlyweds Nathan and Mary Kingsley envisioned a good life in their new house in the pioneer community of Livonia, Michigan. Then a runaway slave on the Underground Railroad takes refuge in their cellar, and Mary must make a desperate attempt to save her wounded husband and the slave from hunters who are pursuing them. Drawing on her own family history, Arliss Ryan has written a richly imagined story of five generations-from Nathan's son Horace, a born schemer who is all too ready to sacrifice his birthright; to Emma, who helps sustain the family through a heartbreaking diphtheria epidemic; to Nathan's great-great granddaughter Laura, who falls in love with a daredevil pilot. By the time the wilderness where Nathan built his home has grown into a suburb of Detroit, the Kingsley House has seen wicked deeds, a summer of lost childhood, a suicide, and a chance to fall in love a second time. Arliss Ryan vividly brings over one hundred years of American history to life through the unforgettable story of a simple family house and the generations whose lives passed within its walls. The real Kingsley House is preserved in Greenmead Historical Village.