Fifty years after their victory in the American Civil War, the Confederate States of America are facing the culmination of a long economic decline. Now, as the world is about to be engulfed in a new kind of conflict, the former belligerents find themselves in opposing military alliances.

Asa Bloomfield, an escaped slave, turned Union soldier, turned celebrated author, reveals a manuscript he had written about a young Confederate whom he had killed in the war, named Solomon Shaw.

Solomon, born and raised in the small, southern town of Eden, North Carolina, is sent by his older brother, Robbie, to work for the richest man in town, Adam Jones, whose slaves had all escaped over the decades since the war. As tensions come to a head between north and south, both men find themselves on opposite sides of the firing line.

What follows are several years of abject horror as Bloomfield recounts both of the young men's stories of survival. Though strangers, both men are shaken and hardened by their experiences. By the time they finally cross paths, victory and defeat are no longer considered-only the thin line between humanity and savagery.