In the uncertain days before a young America would be torn apart by a war between the states, a small boy named Morgan Montgomery is orphaned and sent to live with his mother's wealthy relatives. They attend her funeral service and take the nine-year-old to live with them and grow up on their large plantation near Columbia, Tennessee. As he begins to grow into manhood, tensions erupt to the boiling point. And for one frightening year after war breaks out, Morgan remains on the plantation, torn between his loyalty to his adopted family and his duty as a Southern man. After much trepidation, he decides to enlist in the Confederate army and ends up riding with Nathan Bedford Forrest.
The story tells of the hardships and tribulations of the war, and of his undying love for Charity, the young lady who helped nurse him back to health after he was severely wounded near her home in Mississippi. After the war's end, they are separated by circumstance, and Morgan begins his quest to find her again.
Morgan, clinging desperately to the hope that he will find her, travels to Texas. He works his way across the state, surviving any way he can, hoping that his travels will reunite him with his lost Charity.