Jorge Martinez is an idealistic, young revolutionary, pursued by Sheriff Corey Lane, who crosses the Mexican border on special assignment for the U.S. State Department. In the midst of war, both men find love and tragic passion. Martinez shares a battlefield affair with Juanita, a fiery soldadera. And beyond the roar of the cannons, Lane is united with, and the cruelly separated from, Dona Luisa Lopez y Montenegro, a daughter of wealth and privilege.

Towering above them all are the titanic figures of General Pancho Villa and the legendary Zapata. Not of War Only is the roaring tale of two Americans caught in the tragedies and triumphs of the Mexican Revolution in 1914, and of the women who fight beside them and love them.