As hopes for the Confederacy ebb, the sheltered daughter of a wealthy Savannah merchant finds herself escorting a shipment of family gold to safety in The Bahamas. She soon faces political intrigue, shipwreck, and servitude in a makeshift island hospital of embittered Yankee and Rebel soldiers. Yes, disasters and pandemics do destroy lives. They can also shatter old ways of living and unearth hidden reservoirs of courage. This is the story of how they forged one young woman anew.