On Bernadine Brown's fifty-second birthday she received an unexpected gift; she caught her husband, Leo, cheating with his secretary. She was hurt; angry, too; but she didn't cry woe is me. Nope, she hired herself a top-notch lawyer and ended up with a cool $275 million. Having been raised in the church, she knew that when much is given much is expected, so she asked God to send her a purpose.

 

The purpose turned out to be a town: Henry Adams, Kansas, one of the last surviving townships founded by freed slaves after the Civil War. The failing town had put itself up for sale on the Internet, so Bernadine bought it.

 

Trent July is the mayor, and watching the town of his birth slide into debt and foreclosure is about the hardest thing he's ever done.