When southerner Lora Blair married Union soldier Wade Taylor, she knew he still loved Virginia, the wife he had lost. Lora too had given up all hope for love when her fiancé was killed in the War. She's ready to face the life she has chosen. But in Wade Taylor’s cold, unfriendly Staten Island mansion, Lora must summon every once of strength she can muster. The painful mystery of Virginia's death lays heavily over the house, and Wade's invalid mother is openly antagonistic, and is determined to have her way in raising Jemmy, Wade and Virginia's only child. Increasingly, Lora finds herself surrounded by dark secrets - not the least of which concerns the mysterious death of Virginia.