Although “Shiloh” was the second story that Mason published, it remains one of her most popular and is a good example of her typical characters and themes. The story focuses on a troubled marriage—on wreckage and attempts to rebuild. For most of his marriage Leroy was on the road as a truck driver. Now, after a serious accident, his wrecked truck sits idle in his backyard while he recovers from a leg injury. For the first time he and his wife Norma Jean must deal with another terrible accident that occurred sixteen years earlier—the death of their infant son Randy. As Norma Jean lifts weights and Leroy does needlepoint, they must also deal with reversed gender roles and other sweeping social changes that have affected their small town.

Leroy tries to cope by assembling craft kits—a B-17 Flying Fortress, a model-truck lamp, a log cabin made from Popsicle sticks. After constructing the miniature cabin, Leroy hopes to construct a real cabin as a home for himself and Norma Jean. In all these actions, Leroy attempts to make many small parts fit together—to create an orderly whole that is lacking in his own life. In aspiring to raise a cabin, Leroy also reverts to a presumably less turbulent time in the past.

When Leroy and Norma Jean cannot reconstruct their lives at home, they head for Shiloh on a second honeymoon. Ironically, in an attempt to find peace, they visit a battlefield, one of the bloodiest of the Civil War. The story ends ambiguously as Norma Jean stands on a bluff looking out over the Tennessee River and Leroy struggles to catch up with her. With her clear focus on the opposite shore, Norma Jean will surely deal with her present problems and move on. Whether or not Leroy will accompany her remains unclear.