The novel of Cold Mountain is a classic tale of two people who are madly in love but were separated by unexplainable tragedies from the Civil War. Though they attempt to get back together throughout the course of the novel, unfortunately they never see their better half again. The story of Cold Mountain is somewhat similar to that of Homer's The Odyssey in which the main characters have been separated by war and are traveling great distances to get back together again.
             The story unfolds as Inman is lying in bed in a Virginian hospital recalling war memories of the Civil War and he begins to talk about the love of his life, Ada. He writes her a letter telling her he's returning home to North Carolina so they live happily together forever.
             Ada's life after the war is a simple one of servitude, but in need of companionship. She is now the owner and manager of Black Cove Farm, a farming business previously ran by her father before the war, but her father dies in a battle and she is left with no other family members to help her. One day she decides to go to her neighbors' house, the Swangers, for a friendly visit and she looks inside their well to foretell her future and she gets a vision of a man traveling alone in the woods and she doesn't understand the purpose of the vision. Sally Swanger sends a local girl of the town named Ruby to help out Ada on the farm.
             While Ada is busy on her farm and figuring out the vision in the well, Inman is having problems of his own. He is being chased across the Cape Fear River by a militia group called the "Home Guard" and barely escapes with the assistance of a little girl with a rowing canoe. Inman then runs into a corrupted pastor by the mane of Solomon Veasey who has been exiled by the community for attempted murder of his lover and her unborn child. Inman teams up with Veasey and continue on together until Veasey causes disturbances at a store and at ...