Jane E. Harper was born in North Carolina and grew up in Pennsylvania. She earned a bachelor's degree from Auburn University, taught middle school in Georgia, Utah, and overseas. Later, she moved to Alaska and pursued a career in accounting. After retiring, she turned to writing; the path she had longed to follow. Harper's perspective of the tumultuous late 1960s is different from the typical impression of the era, such as the hippie subculture in Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco and the Woodstock Festival in New York. The setting is in Columbus, Georgia, near Fort Benning Army base, depicting the struggles of soldiers training for war. Extensively researched, the novel delves into the era's history with flashes of music, religion, and women's issues.