<P>A dusty box discovered in the wreckage of a once prosperous plantation on Agate Hill in North Carolina contains the remnants of an extraordinary life: diaries letters poems songs newspaper clippings court records marbles rocks dolls and bones. </p><p>It's through these treasured mementos that we meet Molly Petree. Raised in those ruins and orphaned by the Civil War Molly is a refugee who has no interest in self-pity. When a mysterious benefactor appears out her father's past to rescue her she never looks back. Spanning half a century </i>On Agate Hill</i> follows Molly's passionate picaresque journey through love betrayal motherhood a murder trial--and back home to Agate Hill under circumstances she never could have imagined.</p>