North & South: Book 1, North & South

With Madeline's school burned to the ground by the Klan, they decide to rebuild. Cooper Main has discovered phosphates on Mont Royal land and with Isabelle Hazard as an investor, begins a mining operation. The conditions of work are poor, however, and the former slaves who work there are forced into another kind of servitude when they are forced to use the company store to buy their supplies, kept in perpetual debt. In Pennsylvania, George Hazard is bereft over the loss of Constance and has become obsessed with finding Bent and exacting his revenge. He has Pinkerton's men tracking him, but they always seem to be one step behind. It takes a visit from Madeline to save him from himself. Ashton has given up prostitution and is now focusing on her new husband's piano business, obsessed with raising enough money to buy Mont Royal. Charlie Main meanwhile refuses to settle down with Willa and continues to roam the West, now as an army scout searching for Scar, who killed his friends.