The U.S. at the beginning of the Civil War: North against South, White against Black, slaveholders against aboloshinists. Officially the state of Missouri is supporting the Yankees, but its populations partly prefers the Confederates and starts a bloody guerilla war, in which even neighbours start killing each other.
The two politically uniterested young men Jack Bull and his best friend, German-American Jake Roedel, also join the guerilla of the South - as a revenge for the murder on Jack's father. The boys decide to go along with the so-called "bushwhackers" who hide in unaccessible forrests.
With two comrades, among them former slave Daniel, the friends seek refuge in a a den when winter comes. Soldier widow Sue Lee who is madly in love with Jack secretly brings them food. When the fighting starts again in spring the previously eager guerilla fighters lose their motivation because of the increasing horrors and the loss of any moral scrupels.
Amok running desperados terrorise the population, collect scalps and slaughter civilians.
When Jake Bull witnesses the massacre in the town of Lawrence he realizes the futility of the war. After his friend Roedel is killed, Jake marries pregnant Sue and they leave for the West.