In the quiet Nova Scotian village of Grand-Pré lives the fair, beloved Evangeline with her father, Benedict Bellefontaine, a prosperous and honored farmer of the Acadian community. Though she admires and is loved by Baptiste, son of the notary, she is pledged to Gabriel, son of Basil, the village smith. Before they can be married, France and England declare war; the Acadians, bound by allegiance to England and by ties of kinship to France, refuse to take up arms against France, and as a result are ordered deported. As the men are herded aboard a British man-o'-war, the governor-general sets fire to the village of Grand-Pré. Suffering from exposure and broken by the sight, Benedict dies in the arms of Evangeline, who then departs for unknown lands with Father Felician. They arrive at Bayou Têche, Louisiana, where former residents of Grand Pré have established a settlement, just missing Gabriel. Through the wilds of the gulf coast, Evangeline suffers many hardships in search of her beloved, refusing the hand of Baptiste, who has meanwhile become a prosperous land owner. Basil offers to aid her in her search for Gabriel, but they are separated by a storm on the rapids. Traveling alone through unexplored country, Evangeline arrives at a settlement of Jesuits; she becomes a Sister of Mercy, though ever hopeful of finding Gabriel. At the end of the war, Evangeline is sent to Philadelphia to care for the maimed and friendless; there, in an almshouse, she is at last reunited with her long-sought beloved.
