The Landreths harbor a family of fugitive slaves, and Mildred and her husband are living in fear of the oncoming civil war and the possibility of sending fathers and sons, brothers and cousins off to fight. Rupert, Cyril, and Donald Keith, Wall and Stuart Ormsby, and young Percy Landreth are eager to defend the Union they revere and love, but they are also anxious to return to family and friends at home.

With clouds of the Civil War gathering, the Landreths are prevented from doing much good that they would wish to do, and see some slaves forcibly returned to their owner. With the fall of Fort Sumter, patriotic fervor sweeps Pleasant Plains, and the Keiths, Landreths, and Ormsbys all rush to do their part.