There wasn't much of an outlet for an ordinary American woman with ambitions in the 184os; marriage and family was as good as it got back then, for most women ... But Minnie Vining wasn't an ordinary woman. A spinster in her forties, of a respected old Boston family, possessing an independent income and an education worthy of any man among her peers. Minnie took up a noble cause - campaigning for the abolition of slavery. The matter of slavery roiled political and social life in the United States for more than thirty years, splitting apart families, friends, comrades ... and eventually the nation. And when the war began in earnest, Minnie followed her heart and her calling ... as a nurse, tending to sick and wounded soldiers ... but at what personal cost?