ASA McCOY is a Union soldier on his way home to West Virginia after a horrific battle. On the road he runs afoul of JIM VACE and his nephew ELLISO HATFIELD. Confederate sympathizers, they're furious with the idea of one of their neighbors fighting for the Union. A struggle ensues and Asa is gunned down. Meanwhile the Kentucky GOVEROR decides to send a deputy, FRAK PHILLIPS, to put an end to the violence before it escalates into a full family feud. Sure enough, when McCoy patriarch RADALL finds out about Asa's death, he and his sons seek revenge against the Hatfields... which results in the stabbing of ELLISO in a local saloon. Frank arrests Randall's sons for their part in the attack on Ellison, but they're taken from his custody by the Hatfields, who intend to exact their own justice. When Ellison finally succumbs to his injuries, Vance executes his prisoners, the McCoy sons, in cold blood. Randall's daughter ROSEAA McCOY, who has been having a relationship with JOHSE HATFIELD, witnesses the massacre and rushes to tell her family. They decide to set out and stop the Hatfields... but the Hatfields are already on their way. There's a bloody battle in which Randall's WIFE and YOUGEST DAUGHTER are murdered. In the end, the Hatfields are arrested by Deputy Phillips and posse and are made to stand trial for the murders while Roseanna and Johnse escape to pursue their unlikely love in peace.
