While walking his dog, Elliott finds a rare Matron Head coin dated 1831 in the road in front of an historic mansion. He becomes obsessed with knowledge of its prior owners. Love letters found in the attic of the old mansion chronicle the daily lives of a soldier and his nurse during the Civil War, who passed the coin back and forth as a talisman and symbol of their love. Research into both the coin and the mansion takes Elliott and his research assistant, Hatch on a mental odyssey back in time, where events appear vaguely familiar. Elliott realizes he was destined to find the coin to right the wrongs of the past 150 years.