John Jakes

Follows the experiences of an aristocratic family from the turbulent antebellum years through the Civil War, during which they harbor dark secrets and jealously guard their privilege and power.

Two strangers, young men from Pennsylvania and South Carolina, meet on the way to West Point. Thus begins this brilliant novel of antebellum America, spanning three generations and chronicling the lives and loves of two great family dynasties. The Hazards and the Mains are brought together in bonds of friendship and affection that neither jealousy nor violence can shatter-until a storm of events sunders the nation and brings the cataclysm of war!