Shaped by their mountain landscape, as well as each other, imaginative Maylene Farley and Marcus Lilly grow up as close as twin fawns in the mid-nineteenth century. Soon after the threat of a competitor for Maylene's affection is resolved, their friendship turns to romance. However, Marcus is conscripted by the Confederacy and drawn into the Civil War. On the home front, turmoil reigns as West Virginia succeeds in breaking away from Virginia, turning Confederate turf into a new Union state.
Surviving two close calls and a serious illness, Marcus returns at last to Madam's Creek to find Maylene gaunt almost beyond recognition, a community marred by murder and mistrust, and his family altered by tragedy. But a more devastating shock, completely unexpected, awaits him at the Farley home. Healed from physical damage, Marcus struggles to mend emotionally as the sweet reunion he anticipated is instead a painful wedge growing between him and the refuge--Maylene--he held onto throughout the war. The couple soon learns that the biggest threat to their relationship is not the separation and anxiety imposed by the national conflict; it is something much harder to face head-on... until a remark from a "well-meaning" gossip tears open their shrouded wounds. It is then that a crucial secret is unveiled, and it comes from a source neither Maylene nor Marcus ever considered.