When Ulysses Grant returns to his boyhood home in Georgetown, Ohio, in the fall after the Civil War, he expects parades and praise for the conquering hero. Instead he finds the body of an unidentified man in his hotel room.

The few bits of evidence to the crime point to a connection with the Lincoln assassination. Confederate money is found on the corpse, and Grant gets word that Confederates are in the area.

That rumor sparks memories of Morgan's raids on Southern Ohio, and the theft of supplies from local farms. The reappearance of his childhood sweetheart only makes the trip more complicated. When her jewels are stolen, the case gets even more confusing.