A 1981 murder case provides the backdrop for an exploration of Savannah's history and culture in this "nonfiction novel."

Following the defeat of Confederate forces at Chattanooga, the battered Rebel army, including a bitter Cory Brannon, retreats slowly toward Atlanta. A large Union army is marching to Savannah, laying waste to everything it passes. Meanwhile, the Brannon family farm in Virginia is now behind enemy lines, and to everyone's surprise, Cordelia is courted by a Union officer, a Yankee she finds herself unable to hate. As despair grips the Confederacy, the...

Essie, a young black woman in 1880s Savannah, is offered the opportunity to leave her shameful past and be transformed into an educated, high-society woman in Washington, D.C.