Fall, 1861. America has entered a deadly civil war to settle the issue of the rights of the states - notably the right to allow slavery - versus the rights of the central government. From bases at Hampton Roads and elsewhere, warships of the powerful Federal Navy patrol the southern coast enforcing a naval blockade against the South. In Virginia, the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries are a primary hunting ground for Union gunboats ferreting out supplies destined for the rebel army. Raids on the farms, plantations and towns bordering the rivers and inlets are commonplace. When a Union gunboat ascends the Mattaponi River and raids the Amish farm of the Buckner family, Jacob Buckner's long-standing doubts about the Amish way of life reach the boiling point. Violence breaks out, and in a fit of rage, Jacob ignores his parents' admonition to "turn the other cheek." His action unleashes a chain of events that carry him into the Confederate Navy and a world of deadly combat, betrayal and romance as far removed from the Amish way of life as he could possibly imagine. But it is a world that places him on the stage of history and unveils the true Jacob Buckner.