Description: For generations the Woods family has lived and prospered in the hill settlement of Stony Clove in the Catskills of New York state. And fifteen-year-old Lily Woods takes pride in her family's unique and distinctive heritage: a mixture of Native American, French, Dutch, and Scottish. But in 1851 the country is being torn apart in a bitter struggle over slavery, and for Lily the harmony of the hills she has grown to cherish is about to be shattered. First, Lily's sister, a teacher, is nearly killed in an arson attack on a school for young Negroes. Then, in a raid on a neighboring community of freedmen, slave catchers kidnap Kikoyo North - a family friend - and her two children. Furious and heartbroken, Lily decides she must do something to help free her friend. That's when she learns about her family's secret business. For years the Woods have been "conductors" on the Underground Railroad - a network of freedmen and abolitionists who help slaves escape to freedom. The Woods concoct an elaborate plan to rescue the Norths. But the risks are many; arrest, imprisonment, and the knowledge that if they should fail, they will have condemned the Norths to a life of slavery. If Lily has learned one thing growing up in the hills, it is that nothing is more precious than freedom...

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