Cold Mountain

Near the end of the Civil War, Inman, a wounded Confederate soldier, deserts his hospital bed and sets out on foot across the ravaged Carolina backcountry to return to Ada Monroe, the woman he left behind. Ada, a Charleston-bred minister's daughter with no practical skills, has been left destitute on her late father's mountain farm at Cold Mountain. A hardscrabble young woman named Ruby arrives to teach her how to work the land, and the two rebuild the farm season by season. The narrative alternates between Inman's perilous journey through a lawless country and Ada's transformation from helpless gentlewoman into a capable farmer, moving toward a reunion neither can be sure will come.