Bright Lights & Dark Shadows

Boston, March 21, 1852.

Jane Corcoran has crossed the ocean in search of something brighter than the hunger and death she left behind in famine-stricken Ireland. But America brings a new kind of struggle: hatred for Irish immigrants, for Black Americans, for women who refuse to stay in their place.

In Boston’s crowded streets, Jane finds a new sisterhood of survivors: a runaway slave, Irish immigrant women, a streetwalker, an orphan girl, a wife trapped in a loveless marriage. Together they learn to fight—for dignity, for freedom, for the simple right to exist.

As the nation descends into civil war, Jane’s world shatters again: her husband is drawn into the turmoil, her brothers are taken by the fighting, and her sister slips into the same despair that once consumed their mother. By the time the guns fall silent, the Corcoran family is scattered and broken, and Jane must face a new kind of loneliness in a country that has torn itself apart.

The second chapter in Jane Corcoran’s journey tests whether survival can grow into something more: a life remade from grief, courage, and love.