Based on a true story: Evaline is an enslaved woman whose daughter, Hettie, has been taken hostage by her Master to ensure Evaline does not reveal to Sherman’s Army the gold she has helped hide on the property. Evaline’s mistress, Rebekah, assures Evaline that she was against the idea, and is sure that her father will return Hettie safely once the danger has passed. Cobb is a poor rebel deserter and Brock, a wealthy, oafish escaped Union officer, both of whom Evaline is harboring as part of a network among slaves in the South that helps escaped Union soldiers and Confederate deserters alike. But Evaline does not know that Cobb has learned of the treasure; indeed, he has come to find it, with Brock’s help if he can persuade him. As the play progresses, all four must decide whom they can trust, as past lies and past sins are discovered or confessed.

America today has never been so polarized and this play traces much of that polarization back to the Civil War. The piece attempts to show the tensions running through America as that war drew to a close, as well as the terrible price that slavery exacted first and foremost on the enslaved, as well as on the soul of the nation. The play also considers the role that class and wealth played (and still play in the same ways) in American life; how those in power turned (and still turn) poor whites against African-Americans to preserve their place in the hierarchy; and how class might have provided (and could still provide) a fault line different from race on which American politics could be based. That said, human stories, rather than polemic, remain at the heart of this play.