Despite the war around him, Josh Miles refuses to take sides. Neither he, nor any of his acquaintances own slaves, so as far as he is concerned, the War of Succession is a fight between fools and thieves.

Fate steps in when his childhood chum, Zeke Tanner, turns up traitor, the Copperhead, and wearing the blue of the union, murders of the old man Josh looked upon as a father to steal a shipment of gold bound for the Siege of Galveston.

Now the war is personal. Josh and his sidekick, Leeboy Strauss, pursue Zeke and his patrol through Comanche territory until confronting his old friend in a shootout, a shootout in which Josh and Zeke must fight together against a band of marauding Apache, Comanche, and Kiowa in an attack that ends in tragedy.