The novel begins with the two boys, black and white, playing outside. The Sartoris home is in Jefferson. Bayard Sartoris is Colonel Sartoris's son. Bayard's father is fighting against the Union in the Civil war. He grew up side by side with Ringo, an orphan black boy, who calls Bayard's grandmother Granny as well. That night Colonel Sartoris returns home with bad news from the battlefield and he decides to bury a trunk of silver near the house.
One of the black servants called Loosh comes with the news that Union soldiers are near and they are coming to set the slaves free. Bayard and Ringo stay up all night watching the road for Union soldiers. They spot one and come out of the house with a rifle and fire at the man on the horse. They run back home with the soldiers behind them. The two young boys hide behind Granny's skirt. A sergeant enters the house searching for the boys, followed by a colonel. The colonel seems to realize where the two boys are hiding, but he doesn't say anything. Granny tells the boys to bring out the soap to wash their mouths because they used bad words.
Granny tells Loosh and Joby, another servant, to dig out the trunk with the silver. Granny, Bayard, Ringo and Joby get on the road to Memphis with the trunk. On their way they get stopped by a local land-owner called Uncle Buck. He tells Bayard to send a message to his father to kill the blue-coats. On the road they get ambushed by blue-coats and have the mules taken away from them. Ringo and Bayard panic and run, leaving Granny behind. Colonel Sartoris discovers the boys in a ditch. He captures the blue-coats and takes their stuff and goes to Memphis for Granny and they all return home with the trunk of silver. Back home Sartoris' home gets raided and burned by the Union soldiers, Colonel Sartoris escapes. Loosh snitched on them in hopes of getting freedom.
Granny and the boys hit the road again in the direction of Hawkhurst. Granny wants to get her trunk of silver and her black servants back from the Union soldiers. They arrive to their cousins' home in Hawkhurst and discover that their home was raided as well and the railroad dismantled. Cousin Drusilla is there; she lost her fiancée in war and now wants to fight in the war like a man. Every night she watches the hoard of black slaves traveling towards their freedom where Union soldiers are, they are going to cross Jordan. Granny, the boys and Drusilla travel there the next day.
Granny gets back more than she came for. She is given a note from the people in charge to take ten trunks, over a hundred of mules, and over a hundred of slaves. She tells the slaves to go back home and uses the note to take more horses as well. Then Granny and the boys go back home.
Some time passed and Granny is in the business of making fake documents to take mules from Union soldiers and then selling them back to them. Her partner is Ab Snopes, a man who clearly is taking advantage of Granny. Soon, the business backfires and they get discovered by the soldiers they tricked. Granny decides to take one last risk to sell the mules she has left and gets killed by a man called Grumby. Bayard, Ringo and Uncle Buck decide to find the man to avenge Granny. Bayard finally kills him and the two boys get back to Jefferson with the evidence of the revenge.
Colonel Sartoris returns home with cousin Drusilla at his side. The Union soldiers are gone and the war is at its end. Drusilla's mother is outraged that her daughter spent the war alongside Colonel Sartoris fighting. She demands on two of them to marry. The day of the marriage has been set, but on the day Drusilla and Sartoris go to kill the two men who were fighting for a black man to be a Marshal of Jefferson. After this everyone voted against the man. John Sartoris and Drusilla marry despite.
The plot jumps to Bayard being in college and getting a visit from Ringo. Colonel Sartoris is dead. The two young men ride to Jefferson. On the way home, Bayard remembers his father and Drusilla getting married and on one of his visits from college Drusilla asking him to kiss her. He recalls his father partnering with a man called Redmond to build the railroad. Redmond wasn't active in war and John Sartoris made sure to tease him every way he could. Redmond lost the partnership and the legislature to Sartoris and John Sartoris made sure to rub it in his face. This is what killed Colonel Sartoris, or rather his decision to go to a gun duel with this man unarmed. Redmond killed him.
Bayard arrives home and is greeted by Drusilla, his aunt, Louvinia and soldiers who fought alongside Colonel Sartoris. Drusilla gives a gun to Bayard to avenge his father but she turns hysterical when she sees that he's not going to do it. The next day, Bayard goes to town to meet with Redmond. He enters the room where the man is staying. Bayard is unarmed and Redmond purposefully shoots to miss the boy and escapes. Bayard and Ringo return home. Drusilla is gone. Bayard goes to his room and is there is a knot of verbena flowers left by Drusilla on his pillow.
