The daughter of a famous vaudevillian dancer, Evie Grace Devlin is pushed onto the stage at a young age and dubbed the toe-dancing “Pint-Sized Pavlova.” Evie hates the glare of the spotlight, no matter how much her fame-obsessed mother forces her into it. A scholarship to study nursing at a Catholic hospital in Galveston, Texas, provides Evie with her only hope of escape. However, just as Evie is about to be certified, secrets from her past are revealed, and she is cast out. It’s 1932, and she is just one more casualty of the Great Depression. With no choice but to return to her roots, Evie finds work --- as an unregistered nurse --- looking after a troupe of marathon dancers. Unexpectedly she is thrust back where she doesn’t want to be: in front of screaming, adoring audiences.

Born into bondage on a “miserable tobacco farm” in Little Dixie, Missouri, Cathy Williams’ chance at freedom presents itself with the arrival of Union general Phillip Henry “Smash ‘em Up” Sheridan, the outcast of West Point who takes the rawboned, prideful young woman into service. At war’s end, having tasted freedom, Cathy refuses to return to servitude and makes the monumental decision to disguise herself as a man and join the Army’s legendary Buffalo Soldiers. Alone now in the ultimate man’s world, Cathy not only must fight for her survival and freedom, she also vows to never give up on finding her mother, her little sister, and the love of the only man strong enough to win her heart.

The dreams of a mother, a daughter and a father collide in this novel of humor, emotional fireworks, and edge-of-your-seat suspense.