Separated from his wife, adrift in New York City, Ollie Morton returns to Pittsfield, his hometown in the Berkshire Hills, for his mother's funeral and decides to stay. He joins the law firm of his father and brother Ben - a state senator with a thriving practice. But old sibling rivalries threaten to re-ignite as the two brothers get back together. More disturbing is the ghost Ollie encounters, a ghost from over a hundred years before, with Ollie's name, and whose past life mirrors Ollie's present. The story shifts to Pittsfield in 1861 where two brothers, Oliver and Ben Morton, are heading off to war, and dealing with their own growing rivalry, played out on the battlefields of the Civil War. As Ollie's own problems with Ben head to their climax, is he doomed to repeat the mistakes of his family's past? Do the bad acts of one brother ever justify the bad acts of another? Will the ghosts of his family's past lead Ollie to safety, or push him into a fight that echoes down the generations?

Fresh from college graduation and a break-up with his long-time girlfriend, Tom Reardon now has to decide what to do with the rest of his life. He heads off to the tiny Berkshire town of Chilton Falls, where he can think through the clean slate life has given him. He takes a job at the Iron Bear Inn, and old bar with a new owner, Gino, who has his own dreams of a new life. The world of the Iron Bear provides Tom with examples of life lessons to be followed. . . and avoided. Life at the Iron Bear also offers up its own complications for Tom. It is up to him to sort them out and choose his life's path. But there are so many paths to choose from - how does he know which is the right one? Are any of them the right one?

Of all the wars fought in or by America, only one takes its name from a single person.
In 1675, when the English hold on New England was still fragile, one Indian, King Philip, organized the seperate Algonquin tribes into one powerful, military force with a single objective - to drive the English settlers back into the sea. King Philip's War almost did just that.
For a year Algonquin forces terrorized English settlements. Out of ninety New England towns, fifty-two felt the ferocity of the Algonquin attack. Twelve were completely destroyed before the English regained the upper hand. To the settlers, King Philip represented all that was despicable about the Indians. They considered him a wicked savage, a devilish scoundrel.
But to himself, he wasn't even King Philip.
He was -
Metacomet - sachem of the Algonquin. But he did agree with the English on one thing. This was his war.