"Bravery was required in the early 1800s frontier along the Mississippi River, and Annamanda's courage helps her family to survive despite ferocious bears, "panthers," Tecumseh's ire, crop failures, roving bands of outlaws, and even the disputes between the many religions that formed and fell at the edges of the movement West. Following her preacher husband into Missouri's wilds, Annamanda meets the strange Eremus Lodi, a wealthy, educated landowner whose demons isolate him from "proper folk," and his African companion named O'Reilly, whose healing powers save several members of her family. Through danger and deprivation, doubt and wonder, Annamanda faces each trial with humble strength and humor, until the coming of the Great Earthquake of 1811 threatens to destroy all that she knows and loves. In Annamanda's flight from the seemingly endless Great Shaking, she and her family will have to face a final horror known as The Beast that is unleashed in the deep forests of the Middle South"--Back cover.