Following the results of the Civil War in 1865, Albert Grayson travels home to Illinois accompanied by his younger brother Sam. Sam, being too young to have joined the war four years prior, came south on a promise made in 1861 to help his brother on his journey home. Their trek is interrupted soon after it had begun by a a family of Confederates, who claim that Albert tortured and killed their brother in the war. After Albert is taken, young Sam must quickly grow up in order to save his brother from a wrongful hanging.