On Thursday, May 21, 1863, a mortar shell rips through the wall of fourteen-year-old Elizabeth (Lizzie) Stamford's bedroom. Afraid their home is no longer safe, her mama, Susan, rushes Lizzie and her younger brother, Nathan, to the cave, where she plans to live until the siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi, ends. Lizzie, however, has her own plans: to enlist in the Confederate Army and help drive General Ulysses S. Grant and his Yankees into the Mississippi River. Her older brothers, Joseph and Willie, are in Virginia, fighting for their cause. Can she do any less? But Willie's death in battle, Joseph's return home, wounded, bitter, and filled with guilt, and a young Yankee whose life she saves make Lizzie question whether there is a right or wrong side to the Civil War.