Russ Fields gave a lot to his country. He lost a brother and half his face to preserve the Union, only to come home and lose his beloved younger sister. When he writes to her friend in Pennsylvania with the devastating news, he never expects an answer. Emmie Mason lost her fiancé during the Civil War, and her position at the hospital after the fighting stopped. But her greatest loss was her dearest friend to the fickle disease of influenza. Letters of condolence begin something else, sometimes special, between two people who have lost so much. When Emmie’s father dies, she goes to the one person she feels understands her best.