A series of nostalgic, descriptive essays reconstructs plantation household life in antebellum Virginia, detailing domestic architecture, gardens, furniture, seasonal labor, entertainments, and social rituals such as dances, church gatherings, and weddings. The author emphasizes manners, hospitality, and codes of gentility while acknowledging the central role of slavery within household and community relations. Personal memory and anecdote mix with ethnographic description to portray everyday interactions among families and enslaved people, and to reflect on the social transformations wrought by the war and its aftermath.