Cold Mountain (1997) is a novel by Charles Frazier. It tells the story of W.P. Inman, a deserter from the Confederate Army who attempts to return home to his romantic partner, Ada. The novel won the National Book Award and was adapted into an Academy Award–winning film of the same name.

This guide refers to the 2011 Sceptre edition.

Content Warning: The source text contains discussions of racism, violence, abuse of women and children, and enslavement.

Plot Summary

W.P. Inman is recovering from battle wounds in a Confederate military hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina, when he has an epiphany about the futility of the war. He writes a letter to his love, Ada, and then deserts from the army, starting his long trek back home to the town of Cold Mountain, North Carolina.

Meanwhile, in Cold Mountain, Ada has only recently moved to Black Cove farm from the city of Charleston. She grew up as the daughter of a minister; before Inman left for the war, they shared a brief but deeply intense relationship. When he deserts, Ada has a confusing vision of a man on a journey. When her father dies, Ada is quickly rendered nearly destitute by her lack of knowledge of how to run the family farm. As her situation becomes increasingly desperate, her neighbors send a homeless girl named Ruby to help her. Together, they fix up the farm; Ruby teaches Ada how to survive and Ada teaches Ruby to read.

Inman’s journey is complicated by the Confederate Home Guard, a military unit that hunts down deserters. As he escapes from them with the help of a girl in a canoe, he encounters a fallen preacher named Veasey. After Inman stops Veasey from murdering his pregnant lover, they fall in together. During their adventures, Veasey causes drunken trouble and sleeps with sex workers, while Inman hears stories about landowners’ cruelty toward enslaved persons. They help a man named Junior remove a bull that has died in the middle of a creek, blocking the water. However, after a bizarre interlude where Junior drugs Inman and forces him into a sham marriage ceremony with a woman, Junior betrays the men to the Home Guard. In the confrontation, Veasey is shot and killed, while Inman is left for dead. Fortunately for Inman, however, he has only been grazed by the bullet.

On Black Cove farm, Ada offers shelter to a group of people fleeing the Union Army. In town, Ada and Ruby hear about the local Home Guard unit and its leader, the vicious Teague. Walking back, Ada and Ruby tell each other about their families. Ada’s parents had a loving relationship until her mother died in childbirth, while Ruby suffered at the hands of her abusive father who drank heavily.

After digging himself out of a shallow grave with the help of wild pigs, Inman is found by a kindly enslaved person who feeds him and draws him a map. Inman returns to Junior’s house, kills him, and then befriends an old woman who lives in a mountain camp. She tends to his wounds and gives him advice. Resuming his journey, Inman is introduced to a desperate widow named Sara. When Sara and her baby are threatened by Union soldiers, Inman kills three of them and then uses his wiles to return the family’s hog, which is Sara’s only source of food for the winter.

Ruby’s father Stobrod is caught in a trap due to repeated theft of their corn. Stobrod claims to be a deserting conscientious objector to the war who now lives in a mountain hideout. Despite her hatred of him, Ruby feeds him and his intellectually disabled friend, Pangle. The men repay this by playing music. However, the farm cannot shield them. Eventually, Teague and his men find Stobrod and Pangle and shoot them. When Ada and Ruby arrive, they find Ruby’s father still alive. They hide him in an abandoned Cherokee village.

Inman gets to Black Cove farm, which is empty since everyone is in the Cherokee village. He runs into Ada when she is out hunting turkeys. They share a joyful reunion and, after a quick wedding ceremony, Inman and Ada have sex. They imagine what their future will bring. Ada reassures Ruby that she will always have a home at Black Cove. In the next days, they decide that Inman should surrender to the Union soldiers since it is clear that the war is almost at an end anyway.

When they leave the Cherokee village, they run into the Home Guard. Inman manages to kill all the guardsmen except a young 17-year-old boy named Birch. Inman tries to convince Birch to just walk away from the encounter. Birch however, has been Teague’s right-hand man and protégé. He is just as sadistic as his former boss. Birch shoots and kills Inman. The novel ends with an Epilogue set 10 years later. Ada still lives on Black Cove, raising her nine-year-old daughter (conceived in the Cherokee village). She lives with Stobrod, Ruby, Ruby’s husband Reid, and their three sons. In a peaceful scene, the family eats together, and then Stobrod plays his fiddle while Ada reads to the children.