Just weeks before his release from prison for a murder he didn't commit, Jo Shelby Ferguson loses his only remaining relatives in a highway accident. When he's released from jail, he inherits an old trunk containing pre-Civil War family possessions. Among the artifacts are several bundles of letters written by his great-great-great-grandmother chronicling the family's flight to Mexico with General Jo Shelby of Missouri following the collapse of the Confederacy. With only 40 dollars in his pocket and a note containing the name of a hacienda, Jo Shelby the younger strikes out for Mexico, following the same route as his namesake.