Frank and Willy are two young boys growing up on Oakland Plantation in Old Virginia. The boys' lives are upended with the approach of the Civil War, which both boys struggle to understand. As the war drags on, Frank and Willy remain on their plantation, aiding their mother in keeping their family home safe through the violence that surrounds them. The boys take on the responsibility of securing food for the family and become heroes with their miraculous capture of fatted pigs for Christmas dinner. After the close of the war, as the Oakland family celebrates the future with the marriage of their daughter to a Confederate general, Frank and Willy, no longer just 'two little Confederates', are young men determined to heal the South from the tragedies of the war.