The Smoky Mountain community of Cutter Gap feels suspended in time, trapped by poverty, superstitions, and traditions. Some see Christy and her one-room schoolhouse as a threat to their way of life. Her faith is challenged and her heart is torn between two men with conflicting views about how to care for the local families. Will Christy's determination and devotion be enough to make a difference?

"Since his birth in 1889 in a remote part of the Smoky Mountains called Jake's Creek, Lem Ownby became one of the region's most famous mountain men and hermits. Ownby was sight impaired from an early age but still managed to plant an apple orchard, raise livestock and keep bees in a home he built himself. Lem saw the founding of Elkmont and the rise and fall of logging operations in the pristine wilderness as the last man living within the Great Smoky...

An elaborate and moving coming-of-age story about Eugene Gant, a restless and energetic character whose passion to experience life takes him from his small, rural hometown in North Carolina to Harvard University and the city of Boston.

Nineteen-year-old Christy Huddleston has lived a life of luxury in her cosmopolitan, turn-of-the-century hometown. Determined to reach beyond her sheltered world to help others, the headstrong schoolteacher heads for the impoverished Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee to teach in a remote schoolhouse. As she grapples with the ignorance and poverty of the members of her new community, she strives to make a difference in the lives of the children she...