What if you were counted among hundreds of civilians wrongly charged with treason? Creighton Branagan is one of the few men still residing in the mill village of Roswell, Georgia at the closing stages of the American Civil War. His deafness bars him from military service and condemns him as an outcast. Mae Parrish's dissatisfaction extends to a life of too much work and too little joy. She and Creighton form a wary alliance when they are included among hundreds of southern textile workers arrested for treason and deported to northern prisons under Federal guard. Their crime: manufacturing Confederate uniforms. Clingstone chronicles their arduous journey by wagon and train followed by an emotional internment rife with privations and disease. It is during the course of these hardships that their resilience is repeatedly tested, and their pact of survival evolves into a steadfast love that survives even the deepest self-inflicted wounds of civil war.