German-born Essie Kroecker

is a precocious and talented child, raised in bucolic Salamanca, New York. She is the apple of her father's eye, the bane to her overly religious grandparents, and sidekick to her rebellious older brother. But the world is changing in confusing ways for a child. The rumblings of the First World War are beginning to infiltrate her peaceful and secure life, and she has more questions than there are answers. Why have her family, her German neighbors, and even her pastor-grandfather, suddenly become people of suspicion? Why are they on the outside looking in?

Gentle Spirits, Fragile Hearts

is a story of history's impact on a child, then a young woman, born with an uncanny wisdom and perceptive insights. The question is, will she be gentle of spirit and frail of heart like her mother, or will she garner an inner strength and overcome these times into which she was born?