Samuel Oakman uses the cover of darkness to carry out his mission. It is 1934, and the night is dark. The June 1934 Ku Klux Klan meeting takes place in a room above Kahn's Saloon. Young Samuel is the lone Negro to attend secretly. As he learns the posse's plan for the nights cross burning, he forges his counter-plan. In order to accomplish his mission he must enlist a close friend. Sammy forces his white childhood friend, Gabriel Summers, out of a fitful sleep, and with subtle coercion persuades Gabe to follow him into the East Texas bayous. Gabe follows the death march with terrible consequences if Samuel's plan fails. With the aid of his Gramps eight-gauge shotgun, Sammy stops the raid with greater than wished for results. The duel blasts from the shotgun severely injures Samuel, forcing Gabe to assist him to escape. There is no exit strategy-a critical failure of the plan. Samuel's tactics returns them to town and possible discovery, but Gabe intervenes and leads them to safety. Samuel forgot a critical part of the plan-now they must escape the Posse.