When Heather Jean's spirit merges with the ghost of Morning Glory in 1997 and travels back to 1832, it causes the same conditions in Morning Glory that afflicted Maggie Sue (in Book One): nightmares, visions, reading without schooling, etc. Her mama becomes concerned, as does Maggie Sue's friend Fernleaf and younger sister Myrtie. They wonder what the connection is between Maggie Sue and Morning Glory. The legend that Maggie Sue was a witch is passed down by the settlers in Southern Ohio who remember the child who healed the squatters of typhoid, then died herself on Halloween. Even runaway slaves heard of Maggie Sue decades after her death and used her headstone as a guidepost as they follow the North Star to Canada. It is said her tombstone still stands to this day, with the word "witch" carved on the back. Her surviving family and friends wonder if Maggie Sue really was a witch, and did that mean her niece Morning Glory was one now? Morning Glory, with a Paleface papa and a Shawnee mama, struggles to find her true self as she helps her family hide runaway slaves while hiding from the militia themselves.