<P> However, as the party begins the trek back to the farm, they encounter the Home Guard . A shootout commences in which Inman kills all the members of the Home Guard except for 17 - year - old Birch, Teague's vicious protégé . Inman eventually corners the boy against a rock ledge but is reluctant to shoot him down in cold blood . However, after attempts fail to convince Birch to lay down his arms and leave, the boy shoots and kills Inman . </P> <P> Ada is left a pregnant widow . She raises her daughter at Black Cove, where she lives with Ruby and Stobrod . </P> <P> Cold Mountain won the National Book Award, the W.D. Weatherford Award (1997), and the Boeke Prize (1998). </P> <Ul> <Li> The book was adapted for the screen by director Anthony Minghella, as the 2003 film Cold Mountain, starring Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, and Renée Zellweger . The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Jude Law, and won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for Renée Zellweger . </Li> <Li> The novel has been adapted as an opera, Cold Mountain, which was presented during the 2015 summer festival season by The Santa Fe Opera, in co-commissions and co-productions with Opera Philadelphia and the Minnesota Opera, in collaboration with North Carolina Opera, and recorded for PENTATONE (PTC 5186583). The work was composed by the 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner in music, Jennifer Higdon, from a libretto written by Gene Scheer . It was Higdon's first opera . </Li> </Ul>

Where does the story cold mountain take place