This fictional story explores the lives of two women occupying the same physical space 100 years apart. Perseverance Turner, an African-American schoolteacher, writer, and suffragist, is determined to elevate her students above the circumstances in which they were born. One hundred years later, in the same small town of Hillcroft, Maine, Dawn Davis, a white school teacher, is running for office on a platform of education reform. As the two women’s stories intertwine, ownership of history takes center stage.