In the year 1914 Will Tweedy recalls the summer of 1906 in Cold Sassy, when he was fourteen years old. His story begins on Thursday morning July 5, 1906, right after Cold Sassy's first Fourth of July celebration since the Civil War, a conflict known in Cold Sassy as "the War Between the States." Fifty-nine years old Rucker Blakeslee, Will's grandfather, stops by Will's house for his usual "early morning snort of whiskey." Rucker's wife, Mattie Lou, always refused to let Rucker keep corn whiskey in the house, and even though she died three weeks earlier, Rucker still keeps his whiskey at Will's house. He asks Will to find his mother, Mary Willis, and Aunt Loma. Since she is too poor to own a telephone, Will runs to Aunt Loma's to tell her of her father's arrival. Once Will, Loma, and Mary Willis have gathered together, Rucker announces that he...