When a father and daughter rediscover a forgotten packet of letters bound by a single leather cord, they begin to unravel the life of a remarkable ancestor and Civil War soldier. As they research the life of John Ball, they meet a range of interesting characters - from Civil War buffs to die-hard ancestral researchers. They visit the genealogy room of Flower Memorial Library in Watertown, New York, and climb the stairs of the dilapidated farmhouse where John grew up and where he returned to die at age 39 after a noteworthy life. As they translate the letters, a Boston archivist helps to...