Maggie Poinsett, hard-nosed photgrapher for National Geographic magazine, doesn't look or act like a "Sweet Magnolia"--the name her mother gave her at birth--nor does she believe in ghosts. But while on vaction with her parents in the mountains of western North Carolina, she meets the ghost of Thomas MacKinlay, Civil War soldier shot for the crime of desertion.
She's obsessed with saving Thomas and when the full moon opens the gate, she steps through it into the midst of our nation's most deadly hour--the Civil War.
Disguising herself as a boy, she becomes Thomas' photography assistant, Max; a risky move, but the only way to keep a close eye on the would-be deserter, the man she's grown to love.
From the Union shelling in Charleston harbor and watching Atlanta burn, to a wild ride on a storm-ravaged river, Maggie faces danger at every turn.
But can she really change history?