In the years following the Civil War, Mariah Reddick, former slave to Carrie McGavock the "Widow of the South," has quietly built a new life for herself as a midwife to the women of Franklin, Tennessee. But changes are sweeping through the South, the town, and for Mariah. When her grown son Theopolis decides to speak at a political rally in town, a riot breaks out and he is murdered as he approaches the podium. Mariah must confront her own difficult truths-- and the conspiracy that resulted in her son's death may determine the fate of Tennessee itself.