Benedict Morland’s settled life is overturned when an old enemy’s final request makes him guardian of the orphaned Lennox Mynott. His decision to accept the boy bewilders his wife Sibella and creates hostility at Morland Place. Seeking distance from the dispute, Benedict takes Lennox to America to join his daughter Mary at Twelvetrees Plantation.
Both guardian and ward are drawn to the confidence and beauty of the Southern way of life just as sectional conflict approaches civil war. Their affection for the plantation forces them to confront a society sustained by slavery and threatened by secession. The novel places a private act of guardianship within the American Civil War, making Lennox’s search for belonging part of a larger world about to be destroyed.
