1850 Appalachia. For generations, the Trues have made their living as "warners," an early mortician. And the women of the Fenn family made their living as "weepers" or paid mourners. When the married, Archer True, falls for the weeper, Charlotte Fenn, their affair ends in pregnancy and both families have to deal with the aftermath. This beautifully constructed family saga spans three generations set all within the macabre world of the civil war era American funeral industry where weepers, warners, death photographers and the new practice of embalming the dead dwelled. For generations, the women of the Fenn family have been traditional "weepers"; paid mourners who attend wakes and weep for the dead. Their counterparts, the men of the True family, are undertakers, or "warners." The current warner, Archer True is good at his job, but has a vice for whiskey and women, but the latter has disastrous repercussions as he's also a married man. The weepers were always veiled and always, like him, wore black. One day, he hears a youthful voice from under the veil rather than the older voice he had been used to. When he finds himself irresistibly drawn to the young "Weeper," Charlotte Fenn, their passionate affair results in pregnancy. The scandal of their unborn child threatens to destroy the reputations and livelihoods of both families.