Marnie Cross was not a supporter of The War Between the States, so when her husband, a doctor, Judah Cross enlisted as a field surgeon for the Union, she harbors bitter feelings at being abandoned for a war she does not believe in. In Judah's absence, she meets Dan Cable, a scout for the Union who enlists her services as a spy in her birth place of Clinton County, Kentucky. Judah promised he would come back, but her constant fear that he could not keep that promise weighs heavily on her mind.