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 of his uniform. He is picked up by Union troops detailed to bury victims. When he awakens in a barn, unaware of who he is, he selects a new name, Austin Boone. Mary Frances grows, teaches, and writes as Felicity Harrison. After 20 years, she responds to a marriage solicitation in the newspaper, taking Boone's offer to travel from Richmond to Los Angeles. Austin has no recollection of her. A romance kindles, but not without difficulty. The confusion over names is just the beginning. And there is the "Witch of Endor."