Sugar and Wine

Justin Bourne is a divorced accountant in North Carolina who has inherited the care and maintenance of his deceased Grandparent's 75+ year old farm in Union County, NC just outside of Charlotte and Monroe. On a routine visit, Justin discovers some "love letters" written to his Grandmother, Emma Mae, when she was a young girl. The letters are from a boy named Cory who lived a few miles up the Sugar and Wine road on a farm with his parents and brother, Gus.

Cory and Emma happened to meet at a church social picnic by Chancel's Creek - a creek that weaves throughout the letters and the farmlands. Cory and Emma continue to see each other when Cory's father stops by Emma's Dad's farm to buy muscadine grapes at their family store.
When Cory and Emma go off to College, he continues to write to her. Emma's sister, Lila, marries a man who tries to get rid of the muscadine vines and take over their farm. Cory's Father ends up taking on a hired man to help out with the chickens. Cory's brother Gus catches the hired man stealing, and Gus tells his Father who does not believe him. So Gus joins the armed services and goes to War forcing Cory to come home from College to check on the farm. When Cory arrives, he gets into a fight with the hired man and Emma's brother in law who has concocted a "scheme" involving the muscadine wine.

As Justin goes about the business of re-renting the old farmhouse, he delves deeper into his Grandmother's past by reading the letters and makes a starling discovery. In the letters, Justin discovers the truth about his Grandmother's first love, his own heritage and learns something about himself in the process.