When Sally Kinkaid was a child, her stepmother threw her out of the house, giving her to her aunt for raising. But nine years later, Sally returned to take her place in the family and the business. For many years, the Kinkeads have been in the whiskey production, but Prohibition puts the family business at risk. Sally challenges conventions: she refuses to marry, wears pants, takes the wheel, and picks up a gun to protect everything she holds dear. The magnificent debut novel by Jeannette Walls is full of family secrets and scandals, true love and betrayal, treacherous intrigues and the determination of an extraordinary girl to find her own path.