Marc Delaterre comes to Louisiana from France in 1848 believing that the accumulation of material wealth will give him the independence he never had in his own country. After exhaustive struggles against the fevers and heat of South Louisiana, and against his sworn enemy, his father-in-law, he wrests himself a plantation to begin his fight toward independence.  

Facing him is Louisiana’s move toward secession, which he strongly opposes. When the war ultimately comes to the bayou country, he does what he has to do to protect his plantation from its ravages. He collaborates with the enemy and arms his ex-slaves to defend themselves from a marauding lawless element, the jay hawkers. 

In the final, tumultuous month of the Civil War, when all is in chaos around him, when he thinks he has safely guided his plantation through the destructions of the war, he has to make a desperate choice when he faces the jay hawkers to settle a blood feud.