The movie, adapted from Allan Gurganus's 1989 book of the same name, chronicles the life of Lucy Marsden, a 99-year-old North Carolina woman who at age 14 married a 50-year-old Confederate veteran of the Civil War and bore nine children (reduced to six for television). Diane Lane stars as Lucy from her teenage years into middle age, and Anne Bancroft plays Lucy approaching her 100th birthday, telling her story in flashback.