Octogenarian Addy Shadd, having grown up in Rusholme, a town settled by fugitive slaves in the 1800s, finds the memories of her early life returning to her when she is left to care for a five-year-old mixed race child who has already suffered some hardships of her own.
"A ... survival story about four strangers who spend five days lost in the mountain wilderness above Palm Springs. Four go up the mountain, but only three will come down"--