In a rambunctious river town unsettled by the Great War and up-ended by change unlikely lovers are brought together-but dogged by inescapable bigotry. Despite the dangers, the heroine defies her southern upbringing; the hero fends off his inner demons. For family and friends, race becomes a litmus test, each revealed by his responses to the chasm which separates black from white. Can that divide-widened by distance, a disastrous marriage, the devastation of the '27 Flood-be overcome?