Factory worker Sam Stuart is at the end of his rope. Estranged from his wife and children, drowning in alcoholism, he finds himself caught up on visions of the Civil War. The hallucination grows worse as Sam hears the voice of his one-armed ancestor, Joel, warning him of a coming terror. The souls of Union soldiers, imprisoned in the knots of a Confederate relic, the Black Ribbon of Josephine, desire more than their freedom. They want revenge on their jailer. Once liberated from the knots, each spirit falls on a dead body, reanimating it to further the program of revenge. With an ethereal Joel Stuart guiding him, Sam battles these undead soldiers, and struggles not just against their decaying might, but with his own sanity. He's horrified to discover that they've taken his teenage daughter prisoner. A tale of horror, revenge, and undying hatred, the Stuarts strive to prove that heroism is stronger than death.