Whilst The Watch Man is doing time in the Tombs Prison in New York, an event that began in the south fifteen years before is about to reach into his present. Harvey Cartoum, a carpetbagger and administrator for the Freedman's Bureau, arrived in North Carolina at the end of the Civil War. He brought with him a dissolute band of renegade soldiers and with their help cruelly took over the Bond Plantation.
Wade Durance is given the task of scrutinizing the now wealthy Cartoum's involvement in possible looting. He is obliged to be accompanied by the half brother of the disappeared plantation owner, Liana Bond. Collecting his old friend, the promiscuous sure-shot Lola Mayne, Wade sets out for the south.
The trio encounters challenges along the way, a boy becomes a man and they uncover connection to a lost horde of Rebel gold. All of which promises some fast and deadly action for The Watch Man and his companions.