Progress had been long coming to Arcady, but by War's end - with the near-completion of Sunset, a mammoth mechanized farming operation - the little Georgia town wasn't too many steps away from full industrialization. Only two things blocked Henry Warren from fulfilling his task of uniting the entire Arcady valley: Rad McDowell's farm, bordering on the river, and Reeve Scott's acreage, adjacent to Rad's and stretching across the valley to the through road.

Together, the pitiful little dirt farms of these two crackers-returned-from-the-War cut Sunset in two....and threatened to split asunder the wound that eighty years of reconstruction were just beginning to heal.

As the rival forces of tradition and progress make a battlefield of the valley, several interlocking narratives unfold in this brilliant novel: a member of the Arcady aristocracy attempts to dispossess the family of the woman who had nursed her through childhood and taught her the meaning of good; a powerful industrialist tries to recapture the thrills of his penniless youth; an idealistic young minister works to join his opposing parishes in a spirit of genuine brotherhood, only to meet vicious resistance from both camps; a judge whose activities on the edge of the law have made him wealthy seeks the political plum that has eluded him for twenty years; two physicians - one spineless and guilt-ridden, the other unscrupulous and unfeeling - bid for recognition in quite different ways; and the social structure of the whole community pulses and surges as its members try to make their way upward.

This antique hardback book is in fair condition. The reason being is because the book is well-read and the top of the book has a splash of water damage on the top corners of the page from pages 120 to 504 and pages 120 and 121 are separated a bit at the top of the book. Copyright 1964. Weighs: 1 lb and 6.3 oz.