Young Levon Lewis wants nothing more than to continue to ride his prized horse across the lush, green Shenandoah Valley, far removed from the growing conflict in the North. But after running afoul of a brutal, local militia leader who marked him for death, Levon, along with his cousin, Wilson, reluctantly join the Confederate cavalry as scouts. Few escape the savagery of the bloodiest battle in American history, though, and Levon ends up coming face to face with what he thought he could avoid by becoming a scout: the horrors of the American Civil War.