Eleven-year-old Steve Patterson and Kendra Jordan live in Kentucky, just a few miles from the Tennessee border. Every day they walk past the cemetery, each morning on their way to school, and each afternoon on their way home from school. Kendra's sister, Moniqo, is buried there, and Kendra stops at her sister's grave each morning and afternoon. There's another grave Steve and Kendra look at every day, too. They call it the "lonely grave." It sits off by itself at the lower end of the cemetery, ten yards or more from the other graves. Steve and Kendra had never gone over to look at the grave to see who was buried there, but the grave always caught their attention and sometimes they would try to guess who was buried there, and why anyone would be buried there all alone like that.

One day Steve and Kendra notice that someone has placed flowers on the "lonely grave." In all the years they've walked through this cemetery, no one has ever put fresh flowers on the "lonely grave." They go to the grave and find it's the grave of a six-year-old girl named Amanda Allen who died in 1862. Puzzled by the sudden appearance of flowers on Amanda's otherwise deserted grave, Steve and Kendra begin asking questions. Who is Amanda Allen? Why is she buried off alone like she is? Why are no family members buried near her?

They soon meet up with Doc, a history professor visiting the area. He’s the one who’s been leaving the flowers on the "lonely grave," and the three of them work together to find answers and to solve the mystery of the "lonely grave." Not everyone is happy about them asking these questions, and some prefer to leave the past in the past. For some, ignorance is bliss, but for Steve and Kendra, the truth is what's important, with ignorance not being an option. They begin looking through old church records and newspapers, and the answers begin falling into place. Their journey into research takes them back to the time of the Civil War, slavery, and the underground railroad. They learn that you cannot change the past, but if you work hard enough in the present, you can make a difference in the future.