Despite being neighbors in war torn Missouri, Irish immigrant Maggie Malone and plantation mistress Elizabeth Blair have led such different lives they barely know one another. Maggie wants no part of the war-until her brothers join the Union Irish Brigade and one of their names appears on a list of injured soldiers. Desperate for news, Maggie heads for the Federal army camp. When circumstances force her to remain with the brigade, Maggie discovers how capable she is of helping the men she comes to think of as "her boys." Libbie has learned to play her part as the perfect hostess for her brother, Walker, and not to question his business affairs. When Walker helps organize the Wildwood Guard for the Confederacy and offers his plantation as the center of the operations, Libbie must manage a house with officers in residence and soldiers camped on the lawn. When the Battle of Lexington brings Maggie and Libbie together, the two women discover that both friendship and love can spring up in the unlikeliest of places.