Haik Pehlivanian runs the violent streets of Detroit with the murderous Purple Gang and later raids boxcars for food in the city’s trainyards just to survive. In a stroke of luck, he is recruited into Henry Ford’s infamous “Service Department,” run by Harry Bennett, the former boxer and thug hired to break unions. Later he is assigned to escort world-renowned artist Diego Rivera, who has been commissioned by Edsel Ford to complete a series of murals at the Detroit Institute of Arts, and soon Haik and Rivera concoct a plan to steal a brand new ‘32 Ford Deuce Coupe. Will Bennett catch on to Haik and make him “disappear?” Can Haik trust the impish, outlandish Rivera? Will Rivera’s wife Frida Kahlo destroy both her own marriage and Haik’s? Read "River Rouge" and find out.

Essence Lafontaine and Grace Woodson don't know each other, but soon Hurricane Katrina will force them together. Evacuated to Houston from New Orleans, Essence finds herself in the posh world of St. Catherine's Academy. She and her little sister, Chardonnai stay with the Woodson family as they fight bullying and racism in their new community. Buoyed by the lessons they learn from reading To Kill a Mockingbird, Essence and Grace leave old ties behind to forge a new friendship of healing and renewal.

Starry eyed nursing student, Millie Beaubien thinks she has found her perfect WWII RAF pilot, but has she? A whirlwind courtship starting in Detroit, Michigan and moving on to Pensacola, Florida eventually leads Millie and her pilot, Edward to Sand Castles Estate in Cornwall, England in 1941.