Return to Nashville

Set in 1887, Return to Nashville depicts an elegant era when Sarah Polk, President Polk's widow, reigned over Nashville society from her magnificent mansion, Polk Place, in the wealthy neighborhood of High, Vine, and Spruce streets just south of the Capitol building. The plot revolves around Senator Gideon Taylor, a resident of High Street, who returns to Nashville for the legislative session and encounters a number of challenges as he battles radicals in the senate who want to levy a poll tax to keep freedmen and poor whites from voting. In the midst of elegant balls, dinner parties, teas, and lavish social functions, Gideon and his family encounter numerous struggles, both political and romantic, keeping the reader engaged right up to the dramatic, satisfying end.