The proud citizens of Ruby are descendants of slaves who had founded a town called Haven during Reconstruction. Ruby is fast becoming a haven for women who are fleeing domestic violence, but as these women congregate in an old mansion known as the Covenant, they become the scapegoat for all of the town's ills. Includes selections from the work of 120 authors and spans two centuries. When a proposed referendum for a slavery museum fails, frustration from the defeat triggers a riot. Blacks and whites are killed and the towns Old Market is burned.
Wounds do heal when a local group buys the land and builds the museum from scratch.
Writer Ben Crestfield feels strangled by the demands of family life and flees. Years later he is confronted by his daughter at a book signing in this story about family, failure, and redemption. By the author of Losing Abslom. Rainey, John Calvin. One by one, Gertrude and Troy Woodside's children have returned to their Florida hometown.