Citizens of a town receive funds to restore a graveyard from an old, rich man from Virginia. However, as the people work to clear out the land, they hit an unmarked grave and argue about whether or not to dig it up. Hearing of this dilemma, one of the citizens thinks of a story about an Honest Wine Merchant.

The story begins before the Civil War where an Honest Wine Merchant from Germany lived. The Honest Wine Merchant is very amiable and makes friends with everyone he meets. One day, a ship arrives into the harbor of the James River and the Honest Wine Merchant sends his African American servant to greet the people of the ship and ask those ship mates if they want to drink wine with the Honest Wine Merchant.

The ship members--a Young Doctor and Young Colonel--agree. The Honest Wine Merchant offers them wine from his pipe, which is actually a large cask of wine. The three individuals cheer to their host and drink. However, the Young Doctor and Young Colonel find long strands of golden hair in their cups of wine and become very disturbed. They tell the Honest Wine Merchant this and the wine merchant becomes very distraught because he prides himself in perfection in his wine. The wine, a type of Burgundy, has been sitting in its wine cellar for many years. The Honest Wine Merchant, the Young Doctor, the Young Colonel, and the African American servant decide to go investigate the wine cellar.

As the four individuals descend, they pour out their wine cask only to find a beautiful woman with golden hair inside of the cask. They become terrified by this discovery and the Honest Wine Merchant asks his servant to take a hatchet and knock out the top part of the cask. However, the cask does not break. The Young Doctor then takes the hatchet and breaks the cask. A beautiful, young, naked woman falls out of the broken cask, asleep. She is carved of ivory and wine stains her skin. None of the individuals know how she got into the cask. The Young Doctor explains that she seems to be a very young girl. The four individuals hypothesize that she may have been provoked by either love or violence and then sealed herself away in a casket a hundred years ago.

The Honest Wine Merchant feels incredibly guilty and shameful about the woman in his cask of wine. He leaves town quickly in a carriage drawn by two horses, who are whipped by the Young Colonel. The horses eventually stop beside an old graveyard.

After this encounter, the Young Doctor and Young Colonel both love and fear three things--very golden hair, old ivory, and the smell of Burgundy wine.

The citizen reflects on this story and think about how unmarked graves and the woman in the cask of wine are individuals who sleep the years away.