In 1860 West Tennessee teenagers Sam Carter and Sara Beth Sullivan make plans to seek their fortune in Texas. Later that year Abraham Lincoln is elected president of the United States and the Southern states start seceding from the Union. When Tennessee secedes, Sam's friend Nate Forrest of Memphis convinces him to enlist with him in a new cavalry company being organized in the city. While they are training, Nate is authorized to raise his own regiment and asks Sam to come with him as his executive officer. While her beloved Sam is off with the army, Sara Beth waits. Finally, after the battle of Shiloh, Forrest sends Sam back into West Tennessee to wage war behind the Union lines. He eventually ends up in the Obion River bottom which is practically in her back yard. This is the story of young love during a terrible time of conflict in rural West Tennessee.