The story begins in a wartime army camp where a young captain worries over an imminent battle while his sister remains with him and an eccentric, devoted servant acts as his bodyguard. Scenes of military expectation and domestic anxiety give way to action in the Ozark countryside, where a courtship is interrupted by violent intrusion, an Indian appears, a desperate rescue frees a wounded stranger, and events coalesce around a rural mill to reveal a suspenseful mystery about a captive and the secrets that led to his confinement.