The fabric of Southern community life at the turn-of-the-century is rendered in the fictional town of Cold Sassy, Georgia. A May-December romance scandalizes the rural community as one of the town's leading citizens, E. Rucker Blakeslee, marries a milliner employed at his store. The nuptials occur only three weeks after the death of Miss Mattie Lou, his wife of thirtysix years. The marriage brings not only the disapproval of the townsfolk but of his two married daughters as well. An emerging portrait of love amid scorn is recounted by Rucker's fourteen-yearold grandson, Will Tweedy.

His daughters are not only outraged at the brazenness of Rucker's sudden marriage to Love Simpson, the milliner, but fearful of the potential loss of inheritance that could result from the union. Rucker Blakeslee's dominance and unquestioned patriarchy illustrate the bonds between economic security and familial loyalty typical of this era.

His...