Newspaper reporter Blake Murphy set out to write a story about a shooting in the small town where he was born and raised. The shooting is the latest episode in a feud between two families that has been going on since the Civil War. With help from an elderly former slave, he learns the root cause of the feud, a tragic event that occurred when the son of each family fought on opposite sides during the Civil War. While learning about the people involved in the feud, and the anguish it brought both families, he also learns a long held secret that could change his life forever.