The Simmons family of Mendota, Minnesota are faced with two rebellions that converge in the US of the 1860s, the Dakota Sioux uprising of 1862 as well as the Civil War. The father and two sons enlist in separate regiments to fight in the war. The boys are sent to the western theatre and the father to the eastern front. The women of the family, wife and mother Louise and daughter and sister Sara are left at home to fend for themselves. Their neighbor and family friend Col. Henry Sibley has made promises to Louise that he can't keep, which has devastating consequences for the family.