Virginia Van Druten

Passage Through History Virginia Van Druten

Newly married Elizabeth Dobbs finds herself alone, surrounded by Confederate sympathizers on the Missouri/Kansas border, while her husband, Wid, fights in the Union Army during the Civil War. She copes with pregnancy and loss of her child, runs the family farm, and is threatened by armies and guerillas from both sides. She is unsure whom she can trust. Wid returns at the end of the war, broken in body and spirit. When he dies, Elizabeth creates a new life for herself as a businesswoman and community activist. Elizabeth, as an old woman, looks back on the history that she lived through without moving more than five miles from where she started life.