Blood Brothers uses a factual historical background to illustrate the personal implications of political upheaval and class stratification.
A young Irishman leaves his home and family to find work in London. Experiencing only bad luck, he takes another chance by immigrating to North Carolina in 1830 with nothing but a contract of indenture and belief in his ability to creat a better life for himself.
What happens to him and the famiy he builds is based loosely on a family legend of three brothers from a large working-class family who chose diffefrent paths during the American Civil War. We follow the separate stories of the two who became Confederate soldiers, the one who defied family and friends to join the Union army, and the family left behind to deal with the collateral damage of war.
A rich man's war is a poor man's fight.