Who Would Have Thought It?
 The novel, written in chronological order, is divided into sixty chapters. The first ten occur during the attack on Fort Sumter (1857–1861), and flashbacks explain the acquisition of wealth of a New England family. The last fifty chapters occur during the Civil War (1861–1864). The novel opens with Dr. Norval's return to New England from a geological expedition in the Southwest, accompanied by a ten-year-old girl, Lola, and trunks of supposed geological specimens. He was appointed her guardian when he and his companions, Mr. Lebrun and Mr. Sinclair, rescued her from Indian captivity. Because her skin was dyed black by her captors, her arrival generates commotion among the abolitionist women in the household, especially Mrs. Norval. She is disgusted at the idea of Dr. Norval contaminating the racial purity of their home, despite his insistence that Lola is of pure Spanish descent and the dye will fade. Mrs. Norval demands that Lola work in order to pay for expenses; Dr. Norval objects and explains to her, through a flashback, how he encountered Lola's mother, Doña Theresa Medina. She had given him gold and precious gems she acquired as a captive of the Apache to finance Lola's care. Doña Theresa Medina asked him to rescue Lola so that she would be brought up Catholic. The Puritan Yankee Mrs. Norval is angered when she hears this but quickly reconciles her emotions when he shows her the trunks filled with Lola's fortune. During the Civil War, the novel narrates the rise and fall of Mrs. Norval which revolves around Lola's wealth. Her husband's absence from New England during the Civil War gives Mrs. Norval unguarded access to Lola's wealth. She plots with the hypocritical minister Mr. Hackwell to exploit Lola's fortune and in the process falls into an affair with him. When news arrives that Dr. Norval has been presumed dead, Mr. Hackwell sees this as an opportunity to enter into a clandestine marriage with Mrs. Norval. He is determined to keep the marriage a secret because he suspects that Dr. Norval might still be alive. Dr. Norval is absented from the novel through his self exile in order to avoid political persecution. After learning that he has been presumed dead, Dr. Norval returns to New England. When Mrs. Norval hears this, she shrieks and says "Who would have thought it?" before succumbing into brain fever.