The Stantons and the Nortons were family in the truest, oldest sense: an extended network of kin stretching across the Appalachian mountains, their ties to the land as strong as their ties to one another. So when Larkin Stanton is left parentless at birth in the 1840s, he is taken in by his cousin Arty Norton, and true to the family way, Arty teaches Larkin the old Appalachian ballads the family has sung together for centuries. But when Arty's brother, Hackley, leaves to fight in the Civil War, Larkin finds himself drawn to Hackley's wife, the woman who has held Larkin's heart for years.
