Don’t You Cry for Me

In late 1864 as the Civil War rages on and the South teeters on the brink of defeat, a stranger appears at Susanna Landers’ door in south Central Pennsylvania. Mark Randolph, a circuit-riding minister from Georgia is looking for lodging where, as a Confederate spy, he can plot to destroy the world-famous Horseshoe Curve, an engineering marvel that allows heavily loaded freight trains to scale the Alleghenies. If successful, his mission would disrupt the vaunted Union transportation system, but more importantly it would serve notice to the Union that the South could strike anywhere, even on Northern soil. Susannah, a poverty-stricken Quaker woman, rents him a room in her stable, despite her own misgivings. She needs the money.
As Susannah hates slavery, despises the South and doesn’t mind a good argument, the relationship is contentious at best. So begins a connection no one would take for love, and yet… Even though he struggles with doubts about the Confederate cause, Mark puts duty before doubt and pursues his goal, keeping up his disguise by ministering to the local population. In the meantime, he finds himself strangely attracted to this outspoken and opinionated woman. Despite doubt and uncertainty on both sides, they develop a deep attachment. Local opposition and an unexplained death add to the tension, but they find a way to “love thine enemy.” The war’s end brings peace but doesn’t guarantee a “happily ever after.”