Joseph Willard, a Major in the Union Army at the time of the American Civil War, is stationed in enemy territory, Fairfax, Virginia. Here he meets the beautiful Antonia Ford, daughter of the wealthiest man in Fairfax Courthouse. The two fall instantly in love but because of the war their courtship must be clandestine. The romance is complicated by the fact that Willard is twice the age of 20-year-old Antonia and trapped in a loveless marriage to a woman in Vermont. But just as Major Willard begins his battle to overcome these legal, political and military obstacles, Antonia is arrested by the Union Army on charges of spying.