Annis Ward Jackson sets this novel against a backdrop of beautiful Watauga Lake in the mountains of eastern Tennessee. Violet Thurston Oliver is a descendant of pioneers and has no intention of ever vacating the land that has been in her family for nearly two hundred years. However, Violet discovers that so-called progress grinds on with little concern for personal attachments. Proud, stoic, and self-sufficient, Violet withstands an abusive marriage and forced relocation from her beloved farm in the late 1940's when the Tennessee Valley Authority covered over six thousand acres with a dam to provide electricity and recreational opportunities. The lake has been Violet's sorrow and her salvation. Her fifty-year-old secret may remain safe or it may rise from the depths and threaten the remaining years of a life of hard work, integrity and perserverance.