The heroine of the novel is the editor of a series of fascinating books about the adventures of a certain captain during the American Civil War. The young woman falls in love with this heroic image, seeing in him the embodiment of her dreams of a man to whom she would be ready to give her heart. Having met the author, the woman sees in front of her a copy of the hero of his novels and cannot understand who she is in love with - the mythical captain or his real prototype.