Raintree County

In 1859, Shawnessey becomes obsessed with the legend of the raintree and ventures into the dangerous swamp near Raintree County hoping to locate it. The expedition is perilous and nearly costs him his life, establishing the personal stakes of his quest. This early failure foreshadows the cost of his fixation on the swamp.

During Susanna Drake's visit, Shawnessey engages in a brief, passionate affair that fractures his relationship with his college sweetheart Nell. Nell is left heartbroken as Susanna becomes a central figure in his life. The romance sets the stage for a hasty marriage born of obligation.

Susanna returns to Indiana claiming she is pregnant, and Shawnessey marries her out of honor and duty. Nell watches the union dim the light of a future they had imagined. The marriage binds him to Susanna as the antebellum tensions rise.

They travel south to visit Susanna's family, where rumors of insanity and foreshadowing shadows hang over the house. Susanna's mother died in a mysterious fire, and Henrietta the slave is linked to the family myth. Susanna later confesses that she faked pregnancy to trap him into marriage.

The couple returns to Raintree County before the Civil War. Baby Jimmy is born at the outbreak of the war, making their household a wartime unit and tying their fates to the national conflict. The war's shadow already touches their family.

In the war's third year, Susanna's paranoia and delusions intensify, and she flees Indiana with Jimmy. They seek refuge with Susanna's extended family in Georgia, severing the couple's life in the North. The journey marks a turning point as the family is fractured by wartime pressures.

Shawnessey enlists in the Union Army, determined to find his wife and son. He battles through the Western Theater, moving from one frontline to another in a search driven by love and duty. The war tests his principles and strengthens his resolve.

After a long search, he finds Jimmy at an old plantation and learns that Susanna is confined in an insane asylum. He is wounded as he carries Jimmy back toward the Northern lines and is discharged from the army. The reunion with Jimmy is tempered by the harsh reality of Susanna's illness.

John locates Susanna in the asylum and brings her back to Raintree County. The family faces a fragile postwar adjustment as Susanna's condition lurks in the background. The couple's dynamic remains strained by the echoes of the past.

With the war over and Lincoln’s assassination, John contemplates his future while Nell urges him to pursue political office. The trio must decide how to rebuild their lives in a changed nation. The personal losses weigh on their choices about public life.

Susanna, deluded and driven by the legend, sacrifices herself by entering the swamp in the middle of the night to find the raintree. Jimmy follows, seeking his mother even as danger closes in. The decision seals the tragedy that frames the ending.

A search party finds Susanna's body while John and Nell locate Jimmy alive and carry him out of the swamp. The tall raintree glows in the early morning light, unseen by the adults who were focused on the child. The ending hints at a haunting beauty amid loss.