1862. Springtime. Cornwall, Missouri.
The Civil War rages and sixteen-year-old Michael Sean (Mickey ) O'Day longs to be a real man, a soldier and most of all, a famous war hero. Mickey feels trapped on the meager family farm with the routine physical tasks and chaperoning his six younger brothers and sisters to school each day. He feels underappreciated and jealous of his older brother, Joe, a local legend and Confederate war hero. Mickey is obsessed about proving himself and becoming a real hero in the process. He fraudulently worms his way into the Confederate Army, and after some battlefield luck, Mickey is assigned to Joe 's secret military unit. The gruesome realities of "special operations" are shocking but aspirations of heroism numb his conscience. Then, one particular raid completely shreds his youthful soul.
Suddenly, Mickey's dreams are sidetracked, his innocence poisoned and he's on the wrong side of a desertion charge. Joe saves Mickey, but the result is the O'Day brothers genuinely earn the labels of murder and desertion. They gather their family and escape to the Indian territory of Oklahoma/West Texas.
Day to day survival by a life of crime quickly becomes a fragile norm for the O'day's. The obsession of heroism rekindles as Mickey visualizes himself as a soon-to-be-famous renegade outlaw. Perhaps Mickey's fantasy and obsession are finally becoming reality.