Alona Roberts lost her husband Odell five years ago to the Civil War, and now she has lost her children to fever. She has buried the young ones on their South Texas farm, but she cannot bear the thought of them resting there alone. Their father’s bones are buried where he fell, on a distant battlefield in Indian Territory. Alona has made up her mind: she must find the site, and bring Odell’s bones home to rest with their children. The problem is that Odell’s best friend Tarry Leonard is the only person who knows exactly where those bones rest—and he is a hopeless drunkard and a coward, who carries a dark secret.