After the deaths of her white father and mixed-race mother, young Eliza is left with neither home nor family in the newly forming frontier of Texas.

Enslaved by men who treat her body as their property, she eventually escapes, marries, becomes a mother, and realizes her dream of having a small farm. But she must fight and kill to keep it—even if it does mean welcoming others who have been shunned or forgotten by society. Living and labouring together, will these outcasts find the strength and community they need to survive and flourish?

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Acclaimed for her “wonderful” debut novel (Publishers Weekly), Roccie Hill, inspired by the story of her great-great-grandmother, now presents an unforgettable literary saga of a woman and a place, growing and enduring under multiple flags and through the sorrows and turbulence of history.

Shortlisted in 2008 for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction.