After three years in the Mexican War, color-blind Dannon Lereaux sets out across the mountains in search of "love, red, and a new class of salvation," expecting to find all three in a girl called Madder Carmine. Set in the year 1849, amidst a vividly reconceived Appalachia, young Dannon has returned from the war only to discover home was finer when remembered from afar. Disenchanted and confused, he puts all hope of deliverance in a girl he once met and, along with an escaped slave named Virgil, embarks on an epic journey to find her. But hard on their trail is Will Lawson, Virgil's vengeful owner. As Dannon is pushed deeper into the world of the hunted, his mind slips into a world of its own. Suddenly the mountains of his youth are transformed into the Nine Circles of Hell, and Virgil becomes his soul-guide through the underworld. With this notion firm in his mind, Dannon commends himself to a surreal journey as he seeks redemption in the heart of the Inferno.