Weeks before young Jacob Alson Long is set to graduate from Virginia's Halifax Military Academy, his older brother, Joseph, perishes in the Civil War. Being devastated by the loss, Jacob immediately joins the South's fight and becomes involved in the Masons. His father placing Jacob under "the Protection of the Apron," the ghost of his brother later appears and gives Jacob instructions that enable Jacob to perceive the war and its horrors. Joseph's ghost watches over his younger brother on the bloody battlefields. As the war continues, Jacob learns the ways of the Order of the Golden Knights, and his knowledge helping him to turn the tide at the Battle of Petersburg. He quickly rises through the Confederate ranks and is selected to serve in the secret signal corps. During Jacob's rise to Colonel he is inducted into a secret order, "The Knights of the Golden Circle." Then he becomes commander of a commando unit that operates underground during the last desperate months of the war trying to bring the North to its knee's. After the South is defeated, Jacob and his fellow Knights continue fighting, coming to the aid of their Masonic brother and president of the failed Confederacy, Jefferson Davis. Now, it's up to Jacob and his men to distribute gold to the South's Masonic lodges and continue the war against the oppressive troops of the North. His trials in battle, his struggle to maintain morality during this time of bloodshed and strife prepare him for his final conflict, life in the South during reconstruction.