Magdalys Roca and her friends from the Colored Orphan Asylum are heading southwest on the back of Stella, the giant pteranodon, to find Montez, her brother, wounded during the siege of Vicksburg; now they are heading into the heart of the fighting, depending on Magdalys's ability to communicate telepathically with dinosaurs--but one of the companions is not quite what she seems, and Magdalys's talent could make her a target for both sides.

Now that she has found her brother Montez, Magdalys and her squad have embarked on a secret mission for General Grant, taking them deep into the Louisiana swamplands, to New Orleans, and eventually to the Mexican border where Imperial troops are forming an alliance with the Confederates in pursuit of spreading slavery--and once more Magdalys will have to use her telepathic link to the dinosaurs to save herself, her squad, and the union she believes...

It is the summer of 1863, and as the Civil War rages between dinosaur-mounted armies down south, and a tense New York City seems on the brink of exploding into riots, Magdalys Roca and the other children at the Colored Orphan Asylum are trying to survive; but when she receives a letter telling her that her brother Montez was wounded, Magdalys knows that somehow she must reach him--and just possibly her ability to communicate telepathically with dinosaurs...