For Coral Leigh, the Civil War took everything and everyone she loved: her fiancé, her brother, and her father. But when her mother dies of grief shortly after the war's end, Coral's plantation home, Elmwood, must be auctioned. Soon to be homeless, she fears becoming yet another casualty of the war. Fortunately, help arrives in the handsome form of Clint Logan, a decorated general in the Union army, and part of the occupational forces stationed near her home. When the general kindly offers her employment, Coral decides her pride isn't worth starvation. As love blooms between them, Coral and Clint must contend with threats worse than the scrutiny of Southern society. Disenfranchised Confederate soldiers are causing trouble around town, and Coral has to face the possibility of Clint's death in the line of duty, along with her own social ostracizating. She will have to decide if she's ready to trust her heart's new loyalties, even if it means forsaking everything she's ever known.