Rain Lily

Four years after the Civil War has ended, Maggie Whitcomb is barely eking out an existence on her Arkansas farm. All around her, family and neighbors strive to hang on to what little property and spirit they have left. Her 11-year-old son, Ty, is a comforting help, but she still bears the burden of her veteran husband Will, wounded in the war and physically recovered, but whose mind has been sent back permanently to childhood. With determination and spunk, Maggie decides to make the best of a bad situation. Then one night a spring storm blows a handsome drifter into her barn. Displaced and disturbed by the war, Reid Prescott is inclined to keep moving, but against his better judgment, he hires on as a farmhand. Maggie is confronted by conflicting feelings of loyalty to her husband and a yearning for love and soon finds herself embroiled in a struggle between honor and desire. Though the resolution is self-evident, the journey is entertaining: Camp ( Heirloom ) has rendered a poignant image of a South devastated by the war and betrayed by some of its own people, but determined to maintain its dignity and regain its prosperity. (July)