Mary Frances Cammack, 9, wishes to marry Cyrus Grantham, 17, a graduate of Virginia Military Institute. He's in the Confederate Cavalry, headed toward Gettysburg. The Cammack Mansion is beset by gloom, due to the death of the mother and a sibling. The father will die at Vicksburg. The thread that binds this family is a cook, Ida Mae Bell, who joins in a conspiracy to assist Mary Frances' contact with Cyrus. Cyrus is wounded by artillery and is stripped...