The impact of the Civil War on lovers. Inman is not the man he used to be, as wounded in battle he slowly makes his way home to North Carolina. His sweetheart, Ada, too has changed, no longer a flighty belle but a hard-working farm woman. Will love be the same?

Map of the southern Blue Ridge Mountains on endpapers. Donated by the family of Lieutenant Colonel Loyal (Red) Mumford Pease (February 19, 1917 to April 15, 2011) who served as an officer in the 25th Company Bomb Disposal Squad in the United States Army during WWII.