Beth DeMaret's recently inherited Alabama farm comes with a two-hundred-year-old family history. A history of hardship and prosperity, back through the civil rights movement, through the Civil War, and before the birth of the nation. Beth discovers the story of her family and the very land on which their farm was built. Rumors of buried treasure lead Beth to search for an alleged horde of gold left behind on the land by Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto's expedition in 1540. Her search uncovers history-book-changing facts about the conquistador, the local indigenous Native American tribes, and two of the most horrific massacres in North American history. It also reveals the possible connection of her own personal family history and genetic lineage to both slaughters.