Having a welcome strategic expertise in both the hot and dank Florida swamplands and the local tribe of Seminole Indians, brilliant and ethical West Point graduate Second Lieutenant Lance Caldwell is transferred to scheming Major Degan's Everglades outpost in 1835. Supposedly impeding the development of white civilization, the Seminoles must be expelled from their native lands at all costs; all that stands between the aspirations of the venomous commanding officer and the last of the Indian clans is Caldwell. Sooner or later, a dead sentry and a fiery clash with the men of powerful Seminole leader Chief Osceola, will stain the vast and impassable marshes with blood, as a strong-willed beautiful woman stands in the middle. Can Caldwell be the voice of reason and compromise?