The Stoneman family finds its friendship with the Camerons affected by the Civil War, both fighting in opposite armies. The development of the war in their lives plays through to Lincoln's assassination and the birth of the Ku Klux Klan.
A mother raises two sons in a seaside community. Son Jack stays in the village, marries a local girl, and presents his mother with a grandchild. But son Bob leaves his mother to pursue a business career in the wicked city of London.