Emma is the property of Pierce Butler and has taken care of his daughters, Sarah and Frances, since their mother left home. Emma wants to raise the girls to have good hearts, like their mother's, as a rift in morals has ripped the Butler household apart.

Comfort Snowberger is well acquainted with death since her family runs the funeral parlor in their small southern town, but even so the ten-year-old is unprepared for the series of heart-wrenching events that begins on the first day of Easter vacation with the sudden death of her beloved great-uncle Edisto.

Violet Travilla and her large Southern family must adjust to the many changes in their lives brought about by the end of the Civil War.