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Through several meetings in the fall and winter of 1776, General George Washington and Susan Danforth, the wife of an officer from Pennington, NJ, become close friends. They sympathize with each other's family and social responsibilities, they dread the outcome of the war, they admire each other's knowledge and leadership, and they warm and cheer one another as cold and dangerous times approach. But in camp before the Battle of Trenton in late December, when Susan fails to break up an affair between her husband and a camp follower named Cleo, when her husband turns violently on her and a friend, Susan despairs of their marriage, of her place in society and her whole future. She commits suicide.