Bill Ayer, choosing to sacrifice himself as a spy and feed false information to Grant's Union troops, is captured and sent to Memphis to be hung as a spy. He intentionally avoids escape to be imprisoned in the dreaded Irving Block Prison with his friend, Isaac. They are both to be hung on Bedford Forrest's front lawn as an example to Rebel sympathizers. Distraught, His family comes to the two prisoner's rescue as Mississippi continues to crumble from the advance of the Union army on doomed Vicksburg.