A fugitive from federal justice, Lieutenant Max Ewing returns home to the Gulf port city of Apalachicola determined to seek revenge. The War Between the States has ended, but Apalachicola remains occupied by federal troops and local opportunists, emboldened and empowered by the war. Max's brother Randy has died, a victim of shipboard hostilities in the Bay of Cardenas. Soon, Ewing learns of other losses incurred in his absence: his mother's death from yellow fever, the confiscation of his family's property, and the fates and deaths of many friends. Revenge, loyalty, honor, passion and greed clash in this dramatic tale, which Key sets among the raw and rugged elements of Florida's Gulf coast at a turbulent time in its history.