Autumn, 1864. Rebel bushwhackers have seized and looted a small town in Missouri. Wounded and left for dead by his half-brother, seventeen-year-old Owen Wainwright is captured and conscripted by the Confederate Army. As the troops' blacksmith, he witnesses the horrors of war firsthand: the savagery of General Selby's Iron Brigade, the massacres of Union troops, the bloody battles at Lexington, Westport, and Mine Creek. Against all odds, Owen survives with the help of an unlikely ally--a new friend in arms and the only person he trusts. But if fate is cruel, war can be crueler . . .

Caught in the crossfire of a deadly Yankee ambush, Owen is arrested and jailed in a Union prison. Beaten and brutalized by guards, he begins to give up hope--until a U.S. marshal comes to him with an unusual offer. Owen's traitorous half-brother is wanted for murder. If Owen agrees to help the U.S. marshal infiltrate the Texas winter camp of Confederate guerillas--and bring his brother to justice--Owen will have both his freedom and his revenge. But the risks are great. The price of getting caught is death.