The author weaves a suspenseful, dramatic, historical saga of ambition, love, murder, and one family's tragedy and triumph through the latter part of the Civil War. There are several intriguing twists in the plot: cowardice, obsession, hypocrisy, from dual simulation, that surprise and challenge the family of their leader caught up in their two worlds of avarice, rapacity, insatiable greed and lust. While the war ravages on amid the stormy, personal lives of the people, while we see those depredations only add to the mayhem, we are reminded there are no pristine priests. Still, this book is very inspiring to anyone whose Christian ideals are beyond compromise.