It's April of 1865. Disabled Civil War veteran lawyer Aaron Stone, visiting his Aunt Cornelia in upstate New York State and hoping to end the pain and nightmares only opium and morphine can mitigate, finds a bludgeoned body revealed by receding Erie Canal floor waters He determines to identify the unknown man and bring peace to that man's family. But his quest unknowingly puts him directly in the path of Nora Burns, a determined young woman caring for her four-year-old brother. She is not the simple, innocent he imagines. Unknown to Aaron, Nora and his aunt Cornelia have turned what was a pre-war underground-railroad route into a series of temporary havens for women seeking to escape domestic abuse. Then a returning Union soldier is found murdered, and circumstantial evidence points to his wife as the killer. Aaron is hired to defend her ... and finds himself uncovering secrets that directly affect Nora, Cornelia, and others he cares about.