In 1968, an 85-year-old real estate developer named Solomon “Sol” MacIvey rides in his Rolls Royce from his mansion in Miami, Florida, to his family’s cabin in Punta Rassa, Florida, where he plans to live out his final days. Referring to his mansion, he tells his driver, Arthur, “Not a single MacIvey died in a fancy place like that, and I’m damned if I’ll be the first” (2).

On the way, Sol stops at Big Cypress Creek to visit his half-brother, a Seminole Indian named Toby Cypress. Rejecting Sol’s offer to accompany him, Toby says, “You are trying to capture the fog, and no one can do that” (6).

The story shifts to 1863, when Sol’s grandfather, Tobias, is living in the wilderness of central Florida with his wife, Emma, and their son, Zechariah, or “Zech.” Tobias is 30 years old, Emma is 25, and Zech is 6. A poor farmer, Tobias fled Georgia with his family five years earlier to avoid the coming Civil War. While Florida is part of the Confederacy, its land is largely undeveloped, and its population is small enough that few of its men are enlisted to fight.

The family lives in a two-room cabin and struggles to survive on swamp cabbage, varmint meat, and flour ground from cattails.