This historical novel, set in nineteenth‑century Florida—the “flowery land” of Spanish fame—traces, through the eyes of George Randolph, the moral entanglements of plantation life, racial contact, and frontier war. George, the Virginia planter’s son, grows up on an indigo estate on the Suwanee amid orange groves, an indigo works, and a largely enslaved workforce that includes the faithful Black Jake and the vindictive Spanish mulatto “Yellow Jake.” His sister (variously named Virgine or Virginia) and Viola, a quadroon maid, figure in domestic scenes that slide into violence when Yellow Jake murders a pet fawn and wounds Black Jake.

An early crisis—the alligator episode—brings Powell, a handsome “half‑blood” hunter first presented in Indian dress, to the household to stab a charging reptile and save Virgine; he refuses pay and returns George’s rifle. Powell, later revealed as the Seminole leader Osceola, forges a cross‑cultural intimacy with George, who falls in love with Maümee (Powell’s sister). After West Point and a period of military discipline, George returns to a Florida convulsed by removal politics. Ambitious planters (the Ringgolds), a corrupt agent (Thompson), and scheming lawyers (Grubb) conspire to dispossess the Seminoles.

Personal affronts and martial codes escalate: George insults Arens Ringgold over suggestions about Maümee and fights two duels—wounding Ringgold and disabling Lieutenant Scott—entangling him in local vindictiveness. Secretly observing Maümee, George misreads a scene until Haj‑Ewa, a half‑mad seer, reveals Maümee’s refusal to barter her brother’s freedom. George negotiates a ruse treaty that wins Osceola’s conditional release; Osceola swears private vengeance on certain enemies. War breaks out in a spiral of provocations, raids, and ambuscades (notably Dade’s Massacre), where poorly led American columns repeatedly misjudge Osceola’s guerilla skill. Campaigns include the Ouithlacoochee fight and Osceola’s dispersals; civilian violence intensifies.

George’s private world collapses when his plantation is attacked: his mother and uncle are killed and his sister carried off. Pursuit nearly yields a personal killing of Osceola but restraint prevails. In a nocturnal pine‑glade engagement the pursuers are besieged, trees set alight, and George, wounded, survives by plunging into a pond. Later, fugitives hemmed in by a burning forest suffer starvation, ambush, and capture by a motley camp of Yamassees, mulattoes, and runaways led by Yellow Jake. Prisoners are buried to the neck and nearly burned; Haj‑Ewa and Maümee intervene until Osceola arrives to rescue them. He executes Arens Ringgold in a ruse; Yellow Jake meets a later, vengeful end. Ultimately Osceola himself is treacherously captured by U.S. forces and dies in custody; the narrator reunites with his sister, restores his plantation, and returns to a landscape where private jealousies, ritual vengeance, and small mercies have been braided into the larger catastrophe of frontier expansion.