This is the story of Jessie Youngblood, a former Texas Ranger who settles near St. Augustine shortly before the Civil War. Orphaned by the Comanches as a young child and raised on the Texas frontier by his aunt and uncle, he leaves Texas in search of a new home. After arriving in St. Augustine, Jessie uses his inheritance to buy a small farm near the old city. While he learns about this new frontier, he develops a friendship with the determined and beautiful neighbor, Isabel Cox. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Jessie finds himself swept into the savagery that he thought he left behind in Texas. He soon discovers that violence and brutality are not unique to the Comancheria. To find a group of ruthless murderers, he reverts to the man the Comanches called Yellow Snake and wages his own war within a war. He tirelessly hunts Lucas Jackson while surviving the battle of Olustee. Only his gregarious friend and partner, Silas Ward, keeps Jessie from becoming the self-destructive killer he could be. Meanwhile, Isabel struggles as her world collapses. Raised as an independent, privileged woman, Isabel loses everything except her faith and a love for her ancestral home.