A sweeping saga of Kentucky history from early pioneer days to the mid 1900s, The Dark and Bloody Ground is the story of five generations who strive to create a paradise in the Big Sandy Valley that had been heralded as the world’s greatest, raw resource area.

The Edwards family loses two sons to the civil war and their beautiful daughter, Amy, to Levi Cantrell, a rogue, philanderer and bootlegger. Levi creates a moonshine dynasty in a well-hidden, splendorous cave while two revenue agents mysteriously die in the vicinity. Levi and Amy’s second son, Ben, is Levi’s secret weapon, and they keep the secret even from Ben himself.

In 1911, eastern moguls sweep into the isolated area to mine a mammoth coalfield and bring with them a modern town that threatens Levi’s kingdom. Prohibition arrives and so does Judge Wesley Adams, a man attempting to atone for his one errant act of madness. Adams raises the ire of revenue agents when he becomes friends with Ben Cantrell.

Ben’s son, Thomas, inherits his father’s unique gift and survives World War II because of it.