A old man named Sam Johnson sings with a banjo in a prison during a storm. He tells the other prisoners that there are a lot of people outside that are more imprisoned than they are, just mentally instead of physically. He says that the most jailed-up man he has ever known was named General Montgomery, and he never left his property for fifty years. The General came back from England a few years after the Civil War, and he bought many acres of farmland in West Virginia. Sam's father was one of his first tenants. General Montgomery was the youngest general in the rebel army, and he had a reputation for being ruthless. After the war, the General was singled out for punishment by the government, so he fled to England. He stayed there for about ten years, then came to the mountains to buy a large property, which he did not leave until he died. Sam remembers the first time that he saw the General, when he was three. The General is yelling at his father for having a cow, even though Sam's baby brother needs the milk. There is room for the cow, but the General will not allow it or give the family any of the milk from his own cows. The General is very strict with his tenants, and he will not let them have horses or cows or gardens, even though he has all of these things. He pours out his extra milk and burns blackberry bushes on the property just to keep the tenants from getting any, and he pays them very little. The tenants steal sneakily when they can to get even with him. One day, Sam is with his friend Bob Sanders, and they decide that they want fried chicken. They decide to steal a chicken from the General. They go to the bushes in the back of the Generals house and are rummaging around for chickens when the General comes out of the darkness, saying that they keep coming back after all these years. He shoots into the dark, scraping Sam's ear. The two boys run home, and Sam tells his father what happened. A few minutes later, the General runs into Sam's yard, calling for his father Nate to wake up. He asks for Nate and Sam's help, and has them hold his arms and escort him back to his house. The General is shaking, and says that they almost got him. Nate asks what he is talking about. The General reveals that in Brittonsburg, where he was the officer in command of the Confederates, he had a woman spy named Ethel McGuinness shot. That night, a yankee civilian knocked on the door, saying that the woman had been his wife and he was going to kill the General. The General said that he would have the man shot in the morning, but the man revealed that that would not end it because the sentry who let him in was his brother. The General knew that in their family, they fought blood feuds. The man got away, and the General could not find his brother either. Since then, the General says that he saw them in England every time he looked out the window, and they tried to kill him. He says that the brothers found him again, and that is the reason for the shots earlier. After this, the General starts to get wilder and meaner. The next day, Sam is driving a cart of mules and he whips them for not moving. The General sees this and gets angry at Sam for whipping his mules. He strikes Sam in the neck with the flat side of an ax. When Sam wakes up, he is being nursed by one of the General's maids. The General makes sure Sam isn't dead, but other than that he stays in his room all day for multiple days. Sam vows to leave the property, and he does. He gets a job working with an outlaw. Seven years later, Sam gets word that his little brother has died. He returns to the General's property for the burial. He does not see the General for several days, but everyone says that he is over his wild spell. Sam goes over to Bob Sander's house in the evenings to play the banjo. The night before he is supposed to leave, he and Bob start talking. They talk about the time that they tried to steal the chickens, and Bob jokes that they should try again tonight. The boys walk across the yard to the pawpaw bushes where the chickens are, when suddenly there is a gunshot in the bushes and a cry. The General cries out for Nate, and Nate and the boys all come running. The General is sitting on a stump, and he says they will find the man a little ways up the hill. He tells them to bury the man where they find him. They go up the hill and find the victim surrounded by blood. He is a middle-aged man not from those parts, and he has a ring with the initials "E.M.," the initials of the woman spy, and a jacket with a label that says "Churchill's London, England." They dig a grave for the man, and the General is the only mourner at the service. Sam wonders why the General's voice is full of fear and there are tears in his eyes, but the more he thinks about it the more he believes that the General remembers that this man has a twin brother.