Irish orphan Alice Mavery is raised with strong Christian faith in an 1850's German community in Pike County, Ohio. When her guardian dies before the outbreak of the Civil War, circumstances move her to a new town that comes under attack in the Confederate raid of General John Hunt Morgan's men. Her life will be forever changed as she is assigned to care for the wounded.
The scene moves into Kentucky where Alice must cling to her Christian faith as she learns to deal with a state struggling to find its identity in political loyalties and social conventions. She is taken in by the Swiss grandparents of a sullen young Confederate lieutenant. Jon Buhler is dedicated to "the Cause" and determined to return to win the fight. The relationship between Jon and Alice will become a war in itself due to a matter of faith - not politics - that divides them.