Jason Bennett and his wife Brandie travel south to Carbondale, South Carolina to learn about his father of whom he knows very little. He remembers being given a piece of paper by one of his relatives at his father's funeral that he takes with him. That piece of paper, after being shown to a local attorney, turns out to uncover a secret that pits Jason and the entire Bennett family up against a huge corporation - the largest employer in Carbondale. He learns his ancestry includes an Indian who befriends a trapper of German descent. He also learns of an Uncle, who everyone thought was dead, who reveals his long-kept knowledge of this trapper's assurance that all would be good when Martial' Law' comes.