A ghost in his deserted childhood home in Virginia, Tom Smiley can't forget the bloody war and its meaningless losses, nor can he shed his revulsion for his role in the Confederate defense of slavery. But when a young couple moves in and makes his home their own in the early twenty-first century, trouble erupts--and Tom is forced not only to face his own terrible secret but also to come to grips with his family's tumultuous wartime history. He finds an unexpected ally in the house's new owner, Phoebe Hunter, whose discoveries will have momentous consequences for them both.