"Lizzie and Abraham sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love. Then comes marriage. Then comes Lizzie with a baby carriage."

Lizzie Cray had thought of being married under the magnolia tree's full bloom ever since she was a little girl. The object of her affection was her neighbor Abraham Huff whom she'd loved even when she was too young to know love's meaning or all it might entail.

Life in the 1800s was a struggle. Financial ruins and starvation were rampant in the late 1830s. Then the Civil War came in the 1860s. Could a young couple build a life together? Even if that was possible, would they survive the war and its aftermath?