Includes original illustrations by Jessie Willcox Smith. Four teenaged sisters and their mother, Marmee, live in a new neighborhood (loosely based on Concord) in Massachusetts in genteel poverty. Having lost all his money, their father is acting as a pastor, miles from home, involved in the American Civil War. The women face their first Christmas without him.
A fatal legacy and buried secret haunt the widow and daughter of a rich man who died after a visit from a mysterious stranger. What horrid news did the stranger impart to cause the man's sudden death?