The Republicans, a new political party pledged to halt the spread of slavery, have captured Congress and the Presidency in the 1860 elections. Aroused by this threat to the slave aristocracy, slave-holding states begin to disavow their ties to the National Union, asserting their right to fracture it. Missouri, already badly fractured by the enmity of vicious, internecine warfare along its Kansas border over the slavery issue, teeters on the edge of a bottomless abyss of horrors. Clearly recognizing the approaching cataclysm, former Army officer Jack O’Donnell races against time to stave off disaster.
Entangled in a shadowy world of scheming traitors, clever spies, and fantastical plots, Jack knows one wrong move could be fatal. Beset by his own personal demons, the ex-Dragoon must work in tenuous harness with old enemies and new allies, not knowing who might betray him in pursuit of their own treacherous designs. From Jefferson City to Baltimore, Jack and his intrepid family members must think, and fight, their way through a baffling and perilous maze to save themselves and, potentially, their country.