This is a novel about the lives of the members of the Temple family and their connections in Tidewater, Virginia, in the Reconstruction era. The widow Judith Temple and her sister in law Jacqueline live quietly on the Temple plantation, when the widower George Throckmorton returns to Tidewater. He had joined the Union Army in the war, and led with distinction. The lives of the girls are turned upside-down.. - Summary by Carolin