As the War of 1812 roars around him, dauntless Kit McQueen fights for both his young country and his own honor. After years of battling the pirates of the Barbary Coast, Kit McQueen is shipwrecked on his return voyage before washing ashore in the steamy jungle of Spanish Florida, where the Spanish capture him and sentence him to death. On the morning of his execution, a Choctaw army storms the Spanish camp, led by the fearsome Iron Hand O'Keefe, an Irishman who has thrown in with the Indians. He saves McQueen's life, returning him to the United States to fight a new war. Pressed into the service of his young nation, Kit is sent to the last place he wanted to go: back to Indian country. His commitment to the cause wavers when he is given an order he cannot bear to fulfill - hunting down the Irish traitor who once saved his life.
