Duncan Gatewood, seventeen and heir to Gatewood Plantation, falls in love with Maggie, a mulatto slave, who conceives a son, Jacob. Maggie and Jacob are sold south, and Duncan is packed off to the Virginia Military Institute-he will eventually fight for Robert E. Lee. Another Gatewood slave, Jesse-whose love for Maggie is unrequited-escapes to find her. Jesse finds his freedom and enlists in Mr. Lincoln's army; in time he will confront his former masters. In his award-winning novel of the interlocked lives of masters and slaves, Donald McCaig conjures a passionate and richly textured story in the heart of America's greatest war.