7-year-old Bertil's parents are at work and Bertil are home alone and bored. He is the only child in the family since his sister Martha died of an illness. But everything changes when he meets little Nils Karlsson Pyssling and they become friends. Nisse who lives in the basement in a room he rents from the rat Tjofsan,wich is cruel.
A brilliant but disgraced Civil War general is sent to a sleepy Tennessee town for a second chance. As his risky tactics win battles, a dangerous affair with a married woman threatens to unravel everything—especially when her jealous husband is offered a fortune to end the general’s life.