The Legend of Tom Dooley

After twenty years away, Odysseus washes up on the shores of Ithaca, haggard and unrecognizable. The king has finally returned home, but much has changed in his kingdom since he left to fight in the Trojan war.

Before the Civil War, George Harris, a Yankee schoolteacher, takes charge of a southern country school. He is attracted by Nellie Gardner, his prettiest pupil, but his attentions are resented by her big brother Phil, also a pupil. They quarrel and a fight ensues, in which the teacher gets the better of Phil. Nellie will not forgive Harris for striking her brother.

In the Canadian province of Acadia, young Evangeline is betrothed to Gabriel. But before their wedding can take place, the British imprison the men and send them into exile with their lands forfeit to the Crown Evangeline follows the exiled men in hopes of finding her beloved, but even after he and the other Acadians are released in Louisiana, she cannot find him, always arriving at some locale just after he has departed. But she dedicates her life to searching the continent for the man she loves.

No matter how absorbed with affairs of state, Abraham Lincoln was always ready to give audience to his little son Tad. Little Tad, playing at the boat landing of the White House lake, falls into the water and is saved from drowning by a young fellow named Jasper Brinton. When young Brinton carries Tad into the White House, the president is very grateful to him and says if there is anything that he can do for him at any time he will be glad to do it. Young Brinton's mother is an enthusiastic supporter of the Federal cause, and when the war breaks out, she urges her son to join the Union army. He has an inherent dread of danger and naturally hesitates. He finally enlists. On the battlefield his natural fear takes possession of him.

Paul Worthington, a Federal private, receives a letter from their family physician apprising him of the dangerous illness of his mother. He takes the letter to the commanding officer with a request for a "leave of absence," but Col. Colfax refuses emphatically. Paul determines to visit his mother at any cost, however, realizing the gravity of his offense at the time of war. He leaves the camp, does his filial duty, and while at home General Buchner and his aides from the Confederate side use the lower part of the house for a consultation as it is in the war zone. Paul manages to overhear an important plan to trap General Grant. He memorizes, gets through the lines, warns the great Commander in time, and is pardoned for his loyal desertion.