- Seth Beckwith, the Mannon family groundskeeper, shows up with a few of his pals, Amos and Luisa Ames and their cousin Minnie. He's slightly plastered and singing "Shenandoah." They've all come to gawk at the Mannon's fancy house.
- Seth's getting drunk because he's celebrating the end of the Civil War.
- The group gets to talking, and we find out that Ezra Mannon and his family are a pretty big deal (they're super rich, and they've been in the US since the colonial days blah, blah, blah), and that Ezra and his son, Orin, are fighting for the Union in the Civil War.
- We also find out that people don't know what to make of Ezra's wife Christine, other than that she's pretty and kind of standoffish.
- Amy's convinced a lot of folks hate Christine because she has odd, foreign ways.
- Seth has to take off for a minute to find Lavinia.
- All of a sudden, Christine walks out, stands around looking like a fierce tigress, and walks past the folks crouching in the bushes.
- Seth comes back to finish giving his pals a tour of the Mannon estate.
- He couldn't find Lavinia, but Lavinia finds him.
- The old groundskeeper sends his friends off to dig the fruit orchards so he can have a private chat with Lavinia.
- Because he went to try and find her at her friend Hazel's place, Seth tells Lavinia that he knows she wasn't there.
- Lavinia cops to having followed Mommy Dearest (aka Christine) to New York.
- Seth tells Lavinia he's got some concerns about Captain Adam Brant.
- He sees Hazel and her brother Peter coming, decides to put a cork in it, and heads off.
- Lavinia, Peter, and Hazel chat it up.
- Hazel asks about Orin, and it's pretty obvious that she's sweet on him.
- Lavinia says she hasn't heard anything, but that he's probably okay.
- Peter, who's recovering from a minor battle wound, is happy that the war is over before he's got to go back.
- Hazel makes it pretty clear that he's sweet on Lavinia, and Pete's understandably embarrassed.
- Hazel leaves, but not before she tells Lavinia that Peter wants to ask her something.
- Peter hints that it's a marriage proposal.
- Lavinia isn't having any of it.
- Peter asks if it's because Adam Brant has been flirting with her. Lavinia acts disgusted. Like, really disgusted. It's almost like she knows something. Which she does.
- But Pete isn't done grilling Lavinia about Brant.
- We find out that Brant's the captain of a small ship who Lavinia's convinced was hitting on her at one point—which he was.
- Christine interrupts their conversation and Peter leaves.
- She starts to complain about the house looking and feeling like a tomb.
- Christine, who's told everybody she was visiting her sick father in New York, lets Lavinia know that she ran into Captain Brant, and that he'll be stopping by later in the evening.
- Lavinia changes the subject to her father finally coming home.
- She also implies that Christine was hoping he never came home, and tells her mom she needs to talk to her about some stuff.
- Christine storms off in a huff. It's a rare thing for a Mannon to leave in anything but a huff.
- Seth comes in again, and they sit down together to continue the conversation.
- Seth implies that Brant looks a lot like Orin and a lot like Ezra Mannon. Hmmm…
- He also says that Brant reminds him most of Lavinia's great uncle David. This starts a huge and important conversation.
- We learn that David got a servant pregnant and that Lavinia's grandpa kicked him out of the house, tore the old house down, and ordered a new house (where they live now) built because he was so ashamed. Eventually, the child was born. It was a boy. And this boy would be about Brant's age now.
- Hmmm again…
- Seth's convinced that Brant is David's son, hell-bent on revenge for how he was treated by the family.
- Seth thinks Lavinia should try to get Brant to admit who he really is.
- Brant shows up, and we find out that Brant had tried to romance Lavinia at one point, kissing her on a moonlit walk.
- Lavinia takes Seth's advice and confronts Brant. He eventually admits she's right about his identity. He also admits that he wants revenge on the family.
- Lavinia warns him to stay away from her mother; she accuses him of having an affair with Christine. Brant denies everything.
- Lavinia says she'll tell her father, and Brant tries to calm her down, but she storms off stage.