Life is hard for Ruby growing up in poverty on the wrong side of the mountain on her grandfather's farm where literally the sun didn't shine. The Appalachian setting isn't her friend as she searches for an easy life at the "tippy-top" with contentment and security. Ruby finds an easier life with the mountain's schoolteacher but makes a series of bad decisions, causing her life to tumble into an unexpected outcome. She is forced to leave her hometown in disgrace, leaving behind what she realized she had always wanted.
Joseph knew that he always wanted to be a teacher. His family, one of the more prosperous on the mountain, surrounded him with love and support and encouraged him to find happiness with a family of his own.
Leon, a former farm hand on her grandfather's farm, darts in and out of Ruby's life on his way toward a life of crime.
The Four Winds meets Demon Copperhead in this tale during Prohibition Era Appalachian Tennessee, set in the early 1900s, where setting and mountain community become other characters of the story. Based on a real-life tale of the author's grandmother, the reader gets immersed in Ruby's choices as she searches for worthiness and belonging. Was her adventure worth the loss of her family?
