Howard Hutchings and his father load their Model T and drive from St. Louis to visit family in Grand Tower, Illinois.

Two mysterious women, Delphine Duval and the silent Calinda, step off a steamboat from New Orleans at Grand Tower's dock.

Mama Pruitt invites the two unknown young women from the steamboat to stay in the family home on the Devil's Backbone.

Calinda takes over the Pruitt kitchen and brings quiet, withdrawn Cass out of her shell for the first time.

Noah slips away on his sixteenth birthday to enlist in the Union Army, leaving Mama and Tilly behind.

Mama tells Tilly she cannot spare Noah but can spare her, and orders Tilly to go to Cairo to bring him home.

Tilly and Delphine travel to Cairo and discover Noah gravely ill in an overcrowded, filthy Union Army hospital tent.

The boardinghouse landlady, Mrs. Hanrahan, discovers Delphine is a free woman of color and insults her in front of Dr. Hutchings.

Delphine reveals to Tilly and Dr. Hutchings that she is gens de couleur and explains the plaçage system of New Orleans.

Delphine reveals that Calinda is not her enslaved servant but her own sister.

Noah survives the Battle of Belmont but returns to Tilly with his left arm amputated below the elbow.

Tilly and Delphine nurse Noah through a high fever in the summer kitchen until he finally recognizes them and asks for food.

Returning to Grand Tower, Tilly discovers a coffin in the woodshed and learns that Mama drowned herself in the river.

Grandma Tilly tells Howard that Delphine refused to marry Noah throughout their life together because it was not her people's way.

Howard's father confesses on the road home that Noah and Delphine are his real parents, not Tilly and Dr. Hutchings.

Howard Hutchings drives with his father from St. Louis to visit family in Grand Tower, Illinois, knowing almost nothing about where he comes from. Two mysterious women, Delphine and Calinda, arrive from New Orleans and are taken into the Pruitt family home, transforming everyone around them. When Noah leaves to fight for the Union Army, his mother sends his sister Tilly to Cairo to nurse him back to health, setting off a chain of revelations about identity and heritage. In Cairo, Delphine's true identity as a free woman of color is exposed, and secrets about her family and her relationship with Calinda come to light. Noah survives the Battle of Belmont but loses his arm, and when the group returns home, they find tragedy waiting for them on the Devil's Backbone. Decades later, Howard finally learns the truth about his own parentage and discovers a heritage he can be proud of.

The war that changed everything: from two strangers' arrival to a family's hidden truth.

On the road to Grand Tower, Dad tells the boys about the house on the Devil's Backbone and the ghost seen near it.

Howard arrives in Grand Tower and meets his elderly grandparents, great-uncle Noah, and bedridden Great-Aunt Delphine for the first time.

Tilly finds Cass weeping on the devil's footstool, having seen a vision of boys dying in battle who have not died yet.

The Pruitt family attends a town dance where Tilly dances with her Confederate-sympathizing crush, Curry Marshall.

Delphine's mother sends trunks from New Orleans including a hand mirror that lets Tilly see her own reflection clearly for the first time.

Mama refuses to wear a fine gown sent by Madame Duval and stores it in the death drawer for her burial.

Three women from town, including the preacher's wife, warn Mama that hosting Delphine and Calinda makes the family suspected spies.

Delphine discovers a showboat is stopping in Grand Tower and insists the entire Pruitt family attend the performance.

Noah asks Delphine to dance and leads her in a waltz at the center of the showboat stage.

An orchestra musician recognizes Calinda and sings to her in French until she climbs onstage and dances the calinda, then runs off weeping.

When Tilly and Delphine reach Cairo, Dr. Hutchings meets them at the station in a military uniform, having enlisted as an army doctor.

As Dr. Hutchings sees Tilly off at the Cairo train station, Tilly holds his hand and knows it belongs in hers.

Tilly arranges for Noah and Delphine to sit together on the train home, and Noah declares he will not be helpless.

Grandma Tilly tells Howard that Calinda left Grand Tower after the war and traveled to California, where she could pass as Spanish.

Howard's father says he hopes Howard will someday be proud of his heritage, and Howard says without hesitation that he already is.

Howard's father sets the tone for their visit by describing Grand Tower as a ghost town with a mysterious specter on the Devil's Backbone, hinting at the family's buried history. Young Tilly's world in 1861 is shaped by a sister tormented by supernatural visions, a town divided between Union and Confederate sympathies, and the excitement of strangers arriving by riverboat. The arrival of Delphine and Calinda breathes new life into the Pruitt household, and a showboat performance becomes the last joyful night the family shares before Noah leaves for war. With Noah gone and the war underway, the bonds formed in happier times are tested, and those left behind must each find a way to carry on. By the time Howard visits Grand Tower, these characters are aged and their stories nearly finished, leaving only fragments for him to piece together. The week ends with Howard fully claiming his identity and his family's legacy as his own.

Life before and after the war: dances, showboats, ghosts, and quiet heartbreaks.

Noah drills with Union-sympathizing boys near Grand Tower while Curry Marshall leads a rival group training to join the Confederacy.

Cass races downstairs to alarm Mama, believing Calinda is hurting Delphine, until Tilly peeks through the door and sees Calinda lacing a corset.

Delphine shocks Tilly and Curry by ordering oil lamps and matches at the town store, filling the dark Pruitt house with light.

Delphine discovers Cass wearing one of Calinda's tignons and furiously rips it off her head, saying Cass has not earned the right.

Curry Marshall leaves a note on the Pruitt steps telling Tilly he has chosen to join the Confederate Army.

Mama reveals in the night that she shares Cass's gift of prophetic sight and knows that Noah is dangerously ill.

Calinda tells Tilly to bring Delphine to Cairo instead of going alone, because Delphine knows how to manage men.

On the train to Cairo, Tilly learns that Delphine is only fifteen years old, not the older woman she appeared to be.

When Dr. Hutchings tries to block them from the hospital tent, Delphine refuses his authority and insists she and Tilly will enter.

Tilly notices a book of war tactics beside Noah's sickbed and realizes with dread that he intends to return to the fight.

Watching Delphine before the soldiers depart for battle, Tilly suddenly realizes that Delphine is genuinely in love with Noah.

When the soldiers' boats return from battle, a funeral dirge plays from the deck, announcing the full scope of the losses.

Cass runs out to meet the returning travelers and clutches her own arm in pain the moment she sees Noah's amputation.

Noah picks up Paw's belt buckle from the coffin, reads the insignia, and realizes their father fought and died for the Confederacy.

Grandma Tilly tells Howard that Cass died of diphtheria shortly after the war, worn down by her visions and grief after Calinda left.

From the earliest days of the Civil War, the people of Grand Tower are forced to choose sides, with Noah and his rival Curry Marshall each drilling boys for opposing armies. The arrival of Delphine and Calinda brings warmth and hidden tension to the Pruitt home, including a fierce confrontation over a silk head covering that reveals deep pride in racial identity. As the war draws closer, Mama's sanity unravels and she sends Tilly to Cairo alone, setting off a chain of discoveries about identity, love, and moral courage. In Cairo, Tilly learns startling truths about Delphine's age, her true feelings for Noah, and her fierce refusal to be excluded from the hospital tent where soldiers suffer. The Battle of Belmont changes everything, leaving the family permanently altered by loss and grief. The final revelations tie together generations of sacrifice and make clear who these people truly were to one another.

Every secret uncovered, every choice that mattered: the revelations that shaped the Pruitt family.