'It weren't no surprise when Mama told us we'd be movin' to Texas...the losses of the war an' then the Carpet Baggers had jest about destroyed the south...' So began Trey Langston's acceptance that the life they'd known was gone, and now they would have to start over, this time in Texas. The young boy's ideas of what life would be like in this raw frontier did not include warring Indians, rustlers, and murderous raiders. After Charles Langston met Ben Dunn and Ellie Sorenson, the three forged friendships that would last their lifetimes. Charles and Ben fought with General Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans and returned home with script awarding them a tract of land in Mississippi. They set about turning that wild land into a beautiful and productive plantation. Charles and Ellie married and had a son, Charles Matthew, Jr. (Matt). Ben married a beautiful woman from New Orleans and they had a daughter named Megan. In due time, Megan and Matt married and life was idyllic until the Civil War intervened to destroy an entire way of life. Eventually, Megan met Salem McCord and was drawn to him so strongly that she was terrified of the intensity of her feelings, and the fear that she might do something to dishonor her family. Salem was a man of honor, and though he was very much in love with Megan, he, too, understood that they could be no more than friends.