With this pledge - 1

What can a woman - a mere governess - do against the scourge of slavery?

Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Clouston's quietly held principles oppose those of the Southern Cause - but when forty thousand soldiers converge on the fields of Franklin, Tennessee, the war demands an answer.

The Carnton home, where she is governess, is converted into a Confederate field hospital, and Lizzie is called upon to assist the military doctor with surgeries that determine life or death.

Faced with the unimaginable, she must summon fortitude, even as she fears for the life of Towny, her fiancé and lifelong friend.

As a young soldier lies dying in Lizzie's arms, she vows to relay his final words to his mother, but knows little more than the boy's first name.