Zane and Larissa Edwards, rearing their children Mac and Rose on the family farm, foresee the future spinning out as contentedly as their past. Civil War erupts, shattering their lives and dreams. Zane joins the Sixth Ohio Volunteer Cavalry and is sent to Fort Laramie in Nebraska Territory. His friend Ethan Michaels, a widower with a young daughter, Charity, having promised Zane he will help Larissa with the work, moves to the farm as a hired hand. Ten-year-old Mac begins studying medicine under the town's crusty doctor. Will Zane survive the horrors of war? How will Ethan reconcile his growing love for Larissa, the wife of his best friend, both of whom trust him implicitly? Will Mac return Charity's childish love that becomes deeper and more mature with the passage of time? Will Mac's dreams of becoming a doctor turn to ashes when the war threatens to destroy all he holds dear?