Part 1 Gone to Texas: In 1835, volunteers from the United States sign up to help settlers in Mexico's northern territory--Texas--fight to maintain the freedoms they were promised in the Constitution of 1824. Among the Georgia Battalion are young men from Macon and other small towns. In the novel, a family of women travel with the soldiers as far as New Orleans. Both the Harper women and three Macon cousins are destined to be caught up in the frightful strains of revolution.

Part 2 Falling Stars: The three cousins from Macon face a harsh winter in Texas as they move with the battalion inland from the Texas coast to Goliad, where Santa Anna's brutal execution order is eventually carried out. The Harper women survive the Runaway Scrape, a chaotic effort of stranded settler families to escape the advance of Mexican troops.

Part 3 The Dove Shall Fly to Thee: Citizens of a new republic, those who survived the revolution of 1836 in Texas, need time to recover. The Harper women find friendship and hope in the pine forest settlement of Bastrop. When the capital is moved to Waterloo--Austin--they move as well.