The story begins in South Carolina in 1859, when 16-year-old Lorena McKenzie, already a stunning beauty, meets handsome West Point cadet Baron Callahan at the ball that opens her family’s annual horse sale. The story then jumps forward two years: Lorena’s overbearing, histrionic mother has moved to Baltimore; Baron is with his army unit in Texas; and her beloved father dies, leaving her in charge of the horse farm along with a second farm in Virginia, where she’s started a girls’ boarding school. She soon discovers that her father has left the property in debt, and unscrupulous bankers force the heartbreaking sale of his legacy. With the war between the states imminent, Baron resigns his commission to join the Confederate forces and Lorena is recruited as a spy. Her code name is Rain Crow, a southern nickname for the yellow-billed cuckoo whose cries often presage summer storms. Packing a pistol under her gowns, she flirts with Union officers while conveying secret messages, worries about Baron’s safety, evades capture, is stalked by a possible serial killer, and volunteers at a hospital for wounded soldiers. At first a wayward child, she blossoms into a savvy, compassionate, and daring young woman. Weathers’ 600-page tome is packed with enough characters and plot elements for two or three standard novels. Her writing is often vivid but sometimes uneven; items such as clothing and food are described with colorful, accurate historical detail, but the dialogue often features expressions that feel anachronistic (such as “snagged” for “obtained” and “comprende?”) and occasional plantation dialect. The treatment of slavery is ambivalent; it’s not always clear which servants are free (and of course, the protagonists are on the rebel side). Lorena’s voice is distinctive—she’s aware of her own beauty without being vain, capable of both sarcasm and tenderness, determined, and cool under pressure. The ending is satisfying but open-ended enough to permit a sequel.