Being a native of Missouri and raised on a farm, Patricia had years of experience and the ability to uncover the heart and soul of the characters of her novel. Her book covers five generations of Scottish and Irish decent. In the midst of the Irish potato famine, a newlywed couple and the groom's best friend bravely decided to move to North America and begin a new life After arriving in Kentucky the threesome purchased a tobacco farm and became owners of forty-three Negro adults and fifteen Negro children, who were slaves of the previous landowner. The next few years were beyond difficult. They survived an Indian raid, a redneck attack that burned their house to the ground, and much, much worse. In order not to lose what they had worked so hard to achieve, they joined a wagon train that was leaving for Missouri. Two months later, when they reached the small town of Columbia, Missouri, they decided that this was a perfect place to call home. Within a week they purchased a deserted plantation twelve miles north west of Columbia and immediately named it Oak Cliff Plantation. Within two years Oak Cliff Plantation became one of the largest slave-breeding farms in the Midwest. Shortly following the Civil War, Oak Cliff Plantation was then converted into a horse-breeding farm that thrived through the next four generations of the Gordon family.