The story of Antigone is a story of two brothers, dead on opposite sides of a civil war in ancient Greece. Creon, ruler of Thebes, forbids the burial of the rebel brother, on pain of death. Their sister goes against the king, and buries him with rites and libations. She is sentenced to death.

Here the Antigone of Sophocles becomes a story of the American Civil War. Loudoun County in northern Virginia is torn between blue and gray. In the King family, Gus enlists with the Potomac Brigade, while his brother Price crosses the lines to join the Blue Mountain Boys.

Both are killed. Gus at Ball's Bluff in 1861, and Price, a year later, at Manassas. Gus is given a hero's funeral. Price's father, Credence King, a Colonel in the Union army and an adjutant to Meade, wants his body, when found, to be thrown to the birds and dogs.

Cree has two daughters. One, Isa, is timid and fearful. And the other, Anne, crosses the lines of battle, finds her brother's body, brings him home for burial, and suffers the fate of Antigone.