Little did Cecelia Stovall know that her life would change forever as she entered the Commencement Ball at West Point Military Academy on a spring evening in 1837. She dances and falls instantly in love with the dashing young Northern cadet William Tecumseh Sherman. They embark on a fiery, secret rendezvous despite their broad cultural differences and the expectation that they will marry others. When the Civil War starts, Cecelia and William assume prominent positions on opposite sides, and William becomes the very same General Sherman who will be feared and hated throughout the South.