Acoustic Shadows

After the deaths of her parents, 31-year-old Betsy Howell faces a lonely future filled with regret and unanswered questions about her family's past. She is haunted by conflicted memories of her childhood and the relationship she shared with her charming but alcoholic father, a World War II veteran. Yet out of this grief and bewilderment, a journey emerges. Howell seeks solace in a family heirloom--her great-great-grandfather James Darsie Heath's journals documenting his Civil War military service. She immerses herself in this history during two road trips tracing her ancestor's wartime path along the highways and rivers of the Midwest and South. As she explores the battlefields of Vicksburg, Mississippi and Franklin, Tennessee, the purpose of her quest becomes clear: to understand her father and the immeasurable ways that the experience of combat has affected her family. Howell is soon participating in theatrical battles as a Civil War reenactor as well as interviewing her father's surviving paratrooper comrades about their experiences during D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge.