In early 1862, General Henry Hopkins Sibley and his Confederate Brigade rode across the West Texas desert from San Antonio to El Paso, and followed the Rio Grande north into the New Mexico Territory .

Their goal was nothing less than to conquer the entire Western US for the Confederacy. During this time a young New Mexican named E'mile Deschampes who was only eighteen years old, enlisted in the Union Army to oppose the Confederates in New Mexico.

A prolific battle takes place at Valverde Ford near Socorro New Mexico in February of 1862, and E'mile is nearly killed there. He is rescued from the battlefield by a local villager Carmen Reyes. Together, at Valverde they begin their relationship and strange odyssey with a brutal Confederate Lieutenant, Aubrey McGrath.

Their conflict with McGrath will last nearly twenty years and almost cost them their lives. And as luck and fate play a part in life's events, the couple encounter McGrath after the war in Santa Fe in the late 1800's. McGrath tries again without success to kill E'mile. E'mile prepares for one final battle against his longtime rival as Carmen is kidnapped in Santa Fe by McGrath and his gang.

Will Carmen and E'mile survive to tell the tale of their ordeal with their former Civil War enemy ? Or in 1881 will they both become victims to Aubrey McGrath and his evil gang ?