Doctor Travis Sasser, the chief surgeon of General Hood s Texas Brigade, has served with distinction since the beginning of the war. Unfortunately, he is captured during the Chattanooga campaign and sent to the POW camp at Rock Island, Illinois. As the time drags by and the war nears its end, Travis receives word that his family s ranch in Texas is about to be grabbed by carpetbaggers for nonpayment of taxes. In desperation he breaks out of prison along with his medical orderly, Homer Waites, and Jake Wheeler, a crusty sergeant from Nathan Forrest s cavalry corps. Jake knows where some Union payroll is hidden; just what Travis needs to save his ranch. Joining with Marie and Irma, two female spies working for the South, they brazenly make their way through the Union lines to Texas. Once there, Travis pays off the tax lien, but determines that a cattle drive is the only way to get the ranch back on its feet. The drive is made, east, to the Mississippi, overcoming outlaws under the command of Jeremy Asherton, Travis s sworn enemy. Travis s medical skill is tested as he fights to save Marie, the Confederate spy he has come to love.