There is no way you can read this book and not feel the pain and joys of Mattie Posey as she lives in the aftermath of the Civil War on a farm in Mississippi. The times are hard and she has to do the work of a man on the family farm, as she has no brothers to help with the farm work. When her religiously prejudiced parents interfere with her love for a catholic boy, Matties pain devastates her soul and threatens to break her spirit. Matties manic/depressive mother, Annie, vacillates between extreme emotional lows and highs, which cause her to be very strict, and a harsh disciplinarian. Matties father, Wade, is a gentle, kind man. However, he does not take a stand against his wifes extreme discipline of the children. Mattie must assume her mothers duties and care for her when she is incapacitated by her depression. A rogue panther is lured to the Posey house by the smell of fresh, butchered pork which hangs in the smokehouse. The familys life is endangered when the dogs corner the panther under the kitchen but Annies quick thinking and action saves her family. Matties love for her horse, Prince and her confidence in his speed entice her to enter the horse race at the Neshoba County Fair. Her determination to prove Prince as the fastest horse in the community causes her to break rules in order to win the race. The Posey family and the black family, who shares their surname, have been bound in a close relationship since Wade and Joshua were small children. The trials of rugged farm life and the illnesses and deaths due to a lack of medical care bind them even closer. When Mattie falls in love with Frank Haney, a boy of the Catholic faith, her prejudiced parents take drastic measures to prevent their marriage, so they decide to elope. The Ku Klux Klan interferes with Wades efforts to reward his faithful, black friend with a deed to part of his farm. When a cross is burned in his front yard he visits each of the Klan members and gives them a piece of the charred cross. Years later, Mattie meets John Mayo, who is twenty years her senior and when he proposes marriage to her she has difficulty accepting because of her love for Frank.