Honey Waverley, ignorant and abused daughter of a hard-drinking, irascible mountain man, is called home when her father is mortally injured in a brawl. On his deathbed he forces her to promise to set out with her younger sister, from their North Carolina mountains, and make the long, dangerous journey to piedmont Virginia. There they must beg a home with his cousin, Matthew Waverley, an influential member of the Virginia Assembly. His intention is to burden the Virginia Waverleys, who had disowned him, with supporting his daughters. At the same time he can punish Honey for running away from...