Forced to spend a semester in his father's small hometown up in the mountains, seventeen-year-old Rob finds his feelings of alienation and self-hatred diminishing as he forges relationships with relatives and new friends.
Two brothers, Moody and Muir Powell, handle the difficulties of life in the Appalachian Mountains in very different ways with Moody turning to moonshine and gambling, and Muir leaving to seek a calling that matches his directionless ambition.
In letters throughout the year, Alexandra's grandmother describes the routines and celebrations that make up life in her little village in the mountains of Switzerland.
Having faced danger and adventure to arrive at the primitive Smoky Mountain town where she intends to teach, Christy realizes that God has brought her safely to the people who will form her greatest challenge.
In the 1880s, young Fanny McCoy witnesses the growth of a terrible and violent feud between her Kentucky family and the West Virginia Hatfields, complicated by her older sister Roseanna's romance with a Hatfield.
In 1920 in the mountains of western North Carolina, fourteen-year-old Jim Houston sees his hopes of continuing his education fade when his mother becomes seriously ill and his logger father must deal with the underhanded dealings of outside businessmen.
After charming her reclusive grandfather and falling in love with the beautiful mountain he calls home, Heidi is uprooted and sent to Frankfurt where she befriends Klara, a young girl confined to a wheelchair, and must make a difficult decision.
A teenaged gang member accused of various crimes finds redemption working and snowboarding at a ski lodge in the mountains surrounding Canada's Glacier National Park.
