Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond, Virginia, during the last dark months of the American Civil War. Letha Bartlett is the beleaguered matron of a ward that houses three men whose lives become entwined with hers. Granville Pollard, a Northerner who spurned his Union father to fight for the Confederacy, is a double amputee who is jilted by a fiancee who cannot cope with his wounds. Gradually--and largely thorugh their mutual love of music--Letha and Pollard fall in love. A youngster named Nathan Fisher is recovering from a grevious wound, and has become Letha's favorite patient as well as Pollard's friend. Sergeant Rector Crump, a gruff yet lovable man, has become a trusted friend to both men and Letha. Always hovering over Chimborazo, the Angel of Death strikes a horrific blow that plunges Letha's soul into an abyss that threatens to consume her.