Disillusioned and heartbroken at the atrocities of the Civil War, Josiah Johnson, better known as Buck, finds himself an outcast as a Southern-born Alabama boy fighting for the North as a Union soldier. Instead of letting the Mason/Dixon line dictate his values and loyalties, Buck follows his conscience and fights for freedom instead of oppression. By choosing a path only he understands, life is unpredictable and being scorned is a frequent occurrence. Captured in battle and imprisoned in the horrendous conditions at the Confederate prison in Andersonville, Georgia, Buck knows it was either escape or die of starvation and sickness. Once free, he has one goal-start a new life in the Western frontier as far away from the bloody battlefields and devastation as he can get. The journey west is full of danger and suspense and enough adventure to last a lifetime as Buck searches for his new life, hoping to rid himself of war memories.