Max Miller, a nineteen-year-old Civil War reenactor is a college freshman in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Max is looking forward to four years of normal college life, but his time spent at school turns out to be anything but normal. He meets an eighteen-year-old Mennonite girl, which results in the loss of his part-time job. He also finds himself in danger of being sued and suffers numerous injuries from an attack. Two men in his life, a college roommate and a wealthy Mennonite farmer are making Max's life very stressful but then he discovers the fence and things are not what they seem to be.