In 1865, Union Army Captain Nelson Paintier returns under military orders to his boyhood home, bushwhacker-ravaged southern Missouri. His orders are to pardon or kill the raiders riding there under the black Give No Quarter flag. Caught up in a bushwhacker chase, he must help them or lose the schoolteacher love of his life. She alone understands his guilt for causing the death of a fourteen year old slave girl years before. Because of their love, his dedication to duty, and his desire to correct his past sins, they ride a path that leads them straight towards death on the sheer edges of the hawksbill crag.
In 1865, Union Army Captain Nelson Paintier returns under military orders to his boyhood home, bushwhacker-ravaged southern Missouri. His orders are to pardon or kill the raiders riding there under the black Give No Quarter flag. Caught up in a bushwhacker chase, he must help them or lose the schoolteacher love of his life. She alone understands his guilt for causing the death of a fourteen year old slave girl years before. Because of their love, his dedication to duty, and his desire to correct his past sins, they ride a path that leads them straight towards death on the sheer edges of the hawksbill crag.