Spirited, intelligent and ambitious, Mary Chestnut is disappointed to remain on her wealthy husband's country plantation in South Carolina after their marriage. She hopes for the cultural excitement of a big city, and is thrilled by her move to Washington when her husband becomes a U.S. Senator. Her life becomes even more exhilarating when the Civil War begins, and her husband is commissioned as a Confederate officer. From the high society of aristocracy, privy to schemes of political and military intrigue, Mary plunges into despair over death and tragedy resulting from the realities of war. Her life becomes one of ugliness and deprivation during the War. She agonizes as the war goes badly for the South, and she receives news of the ransacking of her South Carolina home. Sorrow turns to determination when Mary is forced to accept her new role as a conquered southern rebel. Heartbreak and bereavement can't crush her. Raised in luxury, reduced to poverty, she copes resourcefully. Mary Chestnut stands apart from other southern women of her era in her doggedness to fit into her own tumultuous time and place.