The Civil War is over, and Will Page has lost everyone. Yankees killed his father and brother, and disease claimed his mother and sisters. Alone and angry, he heads for the Shenandoah Valley to join his uncle's family. But Uncle Jed refused to fight in the war, and Will, like all the local townspeople, thinks that means he's a coward. Gradually, through the hard work and patience of his uncle's family and the kindness of a passing Union soldier, Will learns that the war was horrible on both sides, and the bravest response is to follow one's own beliefs. In a novel with no easy resolution, Will models nurturing empathy for others while remaining true to himself, all against the backdrop of a very real part of Confederate Virginia that was not primarily slaveholding.