In Alamo Square, Mike Lansford and Jenny McGuire, who have been reunited after meeting each other and falling in love two years before, are again separated by a nightmarish war; in the aftermath, white separatists seize control of large sections of the country, with visions of a renewed Confederacy, holding not just African Americans, but every other minority as slaves.
Jenny, carrying Mike’s daughter, is caught and passed from one group to another; using her strength and intellect not only to survive, she is able to influence even the most virulent racists to improve conditions for all her fellow captives.
Mike, who as an internationally known journalist, has already brokered the end of one war, while mourning Jenny, unaware his daughter was even conceived, must now help rebuild the government, working with the help of Canadians and Europeans, by breaking the power of the separatists, without causing the unnecessary death and suffering of those they enslave.
Working toward the same grand purpose, with Jenny and their daughter on the inside and Mike on the outside, over the course of six years the two bring about a resolution which may heal the nation, yet lead to both their deaths, unaware they are only miles apart when the end approaches.