Lavinia Wren reflects the resolute heart of a seafaring family. Orphaned by the Civil War, Vinnie finds a home in Thomaston, Maine, and grows up with a view of the Georges River, busy shipyards, and the forbidding wall of a prison. In 1865, on the verge of turning thirteen, she meets the son of a shipbuilder, two young sailors, and the raven-haired daughter of a ship carver. For the next sixty years, their lives remain entwined through joy and sorrow as schooners replace square rigs, German U-boats appear off the coast, horse-drawn carriages give way to automobiles, and airplanes take flight. Lavinia and the sailmakers pull the thread of love, not war, through history, replenishing our souls.