The book illuminates the lives of various people in America in 1865 during the civil war. It starts off with the winter season whereby Louis Hughes who was a MC Gehee slave worked at the Alabama State Salt Works. Lou and other slaves who included his wife Matilda, and those who worked in the boiler rooms had been leased to the state salt works by their master, Boss. The salt works had been established in response to the shortage of salt in the whole country since the rebel armies had sealed off the ports hence no salt was imported to the United States. Louis Hughes made an acquaintance with the manager of the salt works whose name was Benjamin Wolsey and they together started selling tobacco plugs to the other slaves in order to make profit.
Cornelia MC Donald was a widow whose husband Angus had died in the war. She was therefore left in poverty with the responsibility of raising seven children on her own. Cornelia moved from Lexington to Rock bridge where she thought that the economic conditions would be much favorable than those at her previous home. Her family engaged in various jobs in the town so that they could earn a living and get food since there was a food shortage due to the looting by both the rebel and Union army which left families destitute.
John Robertson had previously been conscripted into the army but he had left. He had come back seeking a divine intervention that would open his spirit to God. As a result, he went to church seeking his heart to be opened and he at last found the salvation that he had been seeking. John was extremely racist for he despised the people belonging to the black race and wished he would not cross paths with them.
Samuel Agnew was another whose life has been described by the author. He was a church minister and therefore he was not conscripted into the army. His family owned a plantation and a couple of slaves who did the manual work in the plantation. He lives with fear in anticipation of another Yankee raid since his family had suffered from the last one that they had experienced for the raiders had destroyed some of their crop and taken their livestock.
Spring came by with hopes of the end of the war that had brought most people in the country to their knees. The president Abraham Lincoln had tried to make peace with the rebels by stating terms such as the abolition of slavery but the terms had been refused. In time, the Union won the war and the Confederacy crumpled; this angered most who had supported the confederacy, such as Cornelia MC Donald. In this season as well, the President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. The soldiers who had been in the war came home destitute and wounded both physically and emotionally.
Summer came by and a new president, Johnson succeeded Abraham Lincoln. President Jonson offered amnesty to those who had fought on the rebel side but now wanted to support the United States of America. The MC Gehee slaves who included Louis Hughes and his wife Matilda plotted to run off which they successful did and went to a free state where Matilda’s mother resided.
