When ambrose byrd, retired buffalo soldier, arrives in the all-black town of willow bend, mississippi, he's looking for peace, but he walks into trouble. the town's mayor, jim truehart, bought the land from his former master hiram little and transformed the delta swamp into the best cotton land in the county. now little wants the land back, and he hires a man for the job that everyone in willow bend knows too well -- former klansman benjamin loveless, who carried out a massacre in the neighboring county ten years before. byrd thought he was done with being a soldier. but his friendship with truehart and his love for truehart's eighteen-year-old daughter bernie pull him into willow bend's fight. as danger comes ever closer, byrd decides to join with willow bend for battle. will it be a fight for freedom...or a massacre?