Captain Thornton was running for his life when he and his squad of Union soldiers came upon the Tanner's small, southern farm. They had been on the Bellamy Road, trying to get a payroll of gold coins to the landing on the St. Johns River, but Confederate soldiers had overtaken them. The Captain had been wounded and by the time he reached the Tanner's farm, he couldn't go any further. Unable to ride, he gave his men a final order - leave him, hide the gold, and make a run for it. Less than a mile away, his squad was killed and the location of the gold was lost. Almost two decades have passed when Wade Thornton, Jr. arrives in Florida, the owner of land adjoining Fred Tanner's property. Wade has come to make a home in this tropical wilderness but everyone wonders if he has simply come to recover his father's lost gold. The beauty of this exotic wilderness captures young Thornton even though he must battle a war of prejudice which keeps him from the girl who has stolen his heart. He finds she is as unobtainable as the respect he craves from a community that will never forget the Civil War.