In 1850s Louisiana, the willfulness of a tempestuous Southern belle threatens to destroy all who care for her.

After healing the leg of the murderer John Wilkes Booth, responsible for the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, perpetrated on April 14, 1865, during a performance at Ford's Theatre in Washington; Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, considered part of the atrocious conspiracy, is sentenced to life imprisonment and sent to the sinister Shark Island Prison.

Charts the descent into madness of veteran foreign correspondent Malcolm Brabant after a routine yellow fever vaccine for an assignment in Africa.