[1] Lieutenant Kerchival West, a Northern officer, is making a declaration of love to Gertrude Ellingham, a Southern girl.
[1] As he awaits her answer the first shot is fired by the Confederates upon Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, beginning the war which makes the North and South enemies, and he accepts his dismissal.
[3] Gertrude Ellingham is captured and brought a prisoner before Lieutenant West just after she has succeeded in carrying dispatches to Thornton in the Confederate lines.
[3] He joins the army under an assumed name, and accepts from his father, as commander, the dangerous mission of going through the enemy's lines to get the signal code of the Confederates.
[3] A long delayed letter written by his dead son explains to Colonel Haverhill how the miniature of his wife had come into Lieutenant West's possession.