The momentous events of a turbulent century--witnessed through the lives of two powerful families.

For years, the Southern town of Nashborough has been dominated by the Nash and Douglas families. In the 1920s, Seneca Nash, a brilliant lawyer, and his beautiful, courageous, and thoroughly undomesticated wife Dartania née Douglas, continue to epitomize the Southern traditions and social order that defined their ancestors. A way of life, they are certain, which will continue for their own children. But in the next three decades, overwhelming change--economic depression, world war, popular culture, civil rights--will sweep across the American landscape, irrevocably affecting them all. Yet the most shattering changes will come from within each family itself, as a new generation fights to break free from the stifling customs of the past. And for the Nashes and Douglases, life--and their beloved Nashborough--will never be the same.