The novel’s main concern centers around the mystery of why civilians living in the area around the Andersonville prison camp did not decry or intervene in the face of the inhumane conditions that were forced upon the Union prisoners. In the prologue, set long after the camp has been turned into a memorial, Eulinda states she is continually asked how people could live near such a place and not do something about it. The question emerges several times throughout the course of the narrative, often asked in ironic ways. The most egregiously perverse restatement of the question comes from Wirz, the commandant of the camp. He complains to Mistis about the local citizens who pay to climb up the parapets and stare at the prisoners. He asks what kind of people they are, implicitly admitting to the horrors of the camp as he wonders why they react like visitors to a zoo rather than witnesses to an atrocity.

The question is answered through the portrayal of the reaction of nearby citizens like the Kellogg family. Hampton visits the camp twice and is so repulsed he begins to suffer mental and physical symptoms. His reaction is worse because he knows his son resides in a northern prisoner-of-war camp.