"Beginning in 1783, twelve-year-old Mary describes her Loyalist family's hardships as they are forced to leave New York State after the American Revolutionary War and flee to Canada. October 7th, 1783. They came for Father this morning. A loud, rowdy bunch of so-called Patriots with cockades in their hats, all puffed up with righteousness and their own importance. We knew most of them. They were our neighbours. People we used to call friends. They pulled Father out of the house and dragged him down the path. They just dragged him! And then... This is the part that I cannot write. But I must. They lifted my dear father up and sat him on a mule - backwards! They paraded him through town that way, shouting vile oaths that I cannot repeat even to this journal. Then they brought him back and threw him down in the dust. "Here's a pass for you, Tory," one of them shouted, tossing a piece of paper after him. "Use it and be out of here by morning. All of you. We don't want filthy Tories in this town!"' (Book Cover)