The federal government bans fossil fuels, triggering the secession of five Southern states and the start of the Second American Civil War.

A Rebel suicide bomber kills Benjamin Chestnut at the Baton Rouge federal building while he applies for a work permit.

Martina Chestnut moves her three children to Camp Patience, a Red Crescent refugee camp on the Tennessee border.

Twelve-year-old Sarat meets Albert Gaines at Camp Patience, and he begins mentoring her in secret.

Joe provides Sarat a sniper rifle and Gaines trains her at a forest cabin, preparing her for insurgent operations.

Northern militiamen storm Camp Patience, massacring its residents, killing Martina, and leaving Simon with severe brain damage from a gunshot wound.

Sarat, Dana, and brain-damaged Simon are relocated to a government-provided Charity House in Lincolnton, Georgia.

Sarat shoots and kills the North's top military commander, General Joseph Weiland, from a sniper position near Halfway Branch base.

Dana Chestnut is killed by a federal drone strike while driving to meet her boyfriend outside Augusta.

Federal authorities arrest Sarat in the woodshed behind her family's home and transfer her to Sugarloaf Detention Center.

After years of failed torture at Sugarloaf, Sarat is waterboarded, finally breaks, and falsely confesses to numerous crimes.

A government official arrives at Sugarloaf to tell Sarat the war is over and the intelligence against her is not credible, and she is released.

Joe arrives at the Chestnut home, reveals Gaines sold Sarat out to protect his family, and offers her the deadly Quick virus.

Sarat arranges for her nephew Benjamin to be sent safely to Alaska before releasing the Quick virus in Columbus on Reunification Day.

The adult Benjamin discovers Sarat's hidden diary, learns she caused 110 million deaths including his parents', and burns most of its pages.

The Second American Civil War begins when the federal government bans fossil fuels, pushing five Southern states to secede and forcing the Chestnut family to flee Louisiana after father Benjamin is killed by a Rebel bomber. Surviving daughter Sarat falls under the influence of recruiter Albert Gaines at Camp Patience, but it is a Northern massacre of the camp — which kills her mother and permanently injures her brother Simon — that truly radicalizes her. Trained as a sniper, Sarat assassinates the North's top general before federal authorities capture and imprison her at the brutal Sugarloaf Detention Center. Years of torture culminate in a waterboarding session that finally breaks her, and she confesses to crimes she never committed before being released when the war ends. Reconnecting with her family, Sarat is offered a deadly virus and uses it to kill 110 million people on Reunification Day. The story is recounted by her nephew Benjamin, who discovers her diary decades later and must decide what to do with the truth.

The core story of war, radicalization, and mass revenge.

South Carolina is permanently walled off and quarantined after a federal bioweapon creates irreversible zombie-like symptoms in its entire population.

Benjamin Chestnut makes the journey to Baton Rouge to apply for a Northern work permit to relocate his family to safety.

After Benjamin's death, Martina seeks a widow's sanctuary in Vicksburg but is turned away by the local Rebel commander.

Artillery shelling from a nearby battle knocks Martina off her feet in Louisiana, finally convincing her to flee with her children.

The Chestnut family crosses the flooding Mississippi River in a rickety skiff to reach the bus stop for Camp Patience.

Dana regularly poses for paid photo-ops with Northern journalists who visit Camp Patience to document the refugee crisis.

Simon defies his grieving mother and attempts to join the Virginia Cavaliers rebel militia against her adamant opposition.

Sarat falls into Camp Patience's Emerald Creek excrement ditch on a dare, then shaves her head and feels reborn.

Gaines gives Sarat a folding knife engraved with the initials YBR and teaches her how to sharpen it properly.

Marcus tells Sarat his father plans to flee toward the Northern border and the two old friends share a final goodbye.

During the Camp Patience massacre, Sarat hides inside a pile of dead Virginia Cavalier soldiers as Northern militiamen pass nearby.

After surviving the massacre, brain-damaged Simon draws pilgrims from across the South who travel to pray with the so-called Miracle Boy.

Sarat and Dana attend a brutal Yuffsy martial arts death match in Augusta as guests of United Rebel leader Adam Bragg Jr.

Adam Bragg Sr. summons Sarat to United Rebels headquarters in Atlanta and orders her to lay low after the Weiland assassination.

Sarat brutally kills Bud Baker at a Rebel safehouse but spares his wife and twin children, ordering them to be freed.

While the main plot follows Sarat's path to terrorism, the secondary events of American War reveal the texture of everyday survival during the Second Civil War. From South Carolina's catastrophic quarantine to Dana's cheerful paid photo-ops with journalists, these moments show how war reshapes ordinary lives in small but devastating ways. The Chestnut family's perilous crossing of the Mississippi River and Simon's reckless bid to join the Cavaliers militia illustrate the grinding pressures that bear down on every member of the family. The Camp Patience massacre is seen through Sarat's hidden vantage point inside a pile of Cavalier dead, while in the aftermath Simon becomes a celebrated Miracle Boy drawing pilgrims from across the South. From the brutal Yuffsy death match in Augusta to Sarat's cold execution of her torturer Bud Baker — sparing only his twin children — these events fill in the spaces between the headline moments with crucial human detail. Together, they reveal how war corrupts, isolates, and ultimately destroys even the most ordinary people caught in its path.

The everyday lives, losses, and loyalties shaping the war.

The narrator reveals he is Sarat's nephew Benjamin, a dying historian who has kept her story secret his entire adult life.

Martina hides the news of her husband's death from her children, telling them he is already up North making arrangements.

Sarat delivers Gaines' envelope to the dangerous South Carolina section of camp and beats a boy who shoves her outside Leonard's door.

Gaines tells Sarat he searches for special people who are angry at the North and believes she may be one of them.

Gaines introduces Sarat to Joe, identifying him as a Bouazizi Union operative who has been supporting the Southern cause.

Sarat and Dana survive the Camp Patience massacre by locking themselves inside Gaines' office in the administrative building basement.

Sarat silently slashes the throat of the last Northern militiaman as he urinates on the pile of dead Cavaliers outside camp.

Gaines tells Sarat the Union commanders knew about the massacre in advance; Sarat declares she no longer wants to learn — she wants to kill.

Simon's caretaker Karina privately reflects that war destroys all people identically, regardless of their culture, religion, or nationality.

Sarat reconnects with Marcus at an offshore coffee shop and discovers he is now a Northern soldier serving as her informant.

Sarat launches a prison-wide hunger strike at Sugarloaf, seizing control of her own suffering away from her captors.

Sarat secretly sets young Benjamin's broken arm after he falls spying on her greenhouse, and he invents a cover story to protect her.

Sarat overcomes her post-waterboarding fear of water by wading into the Mississippi River alongside her young nephew Benjamin.

Joe reveals his real name is Yousef Bin Rashid — the same initials engraved on the knife Gaines gave Sarat years earlier.

The adult Benjamin initially protests refugees in Alaska despite being one himself, then devotes his career to studying the Second Civil War.

American War is narrated by Benjamin, who discloses in the prologue that he is Sarat's nephew — a dying historian who has kept her story secret his entire life — immediately framing everything that follows as a long-delayed confession. The early turning points are quiet but devastating: Martina's lie to her children about their father's death, and Gaines' careful manipulation of Sarat's hunger to feel special, together plant the seeds of her radicalization long before any blood is shed. The Camp Patience massacre transforms potential into certainty, as Sarat survives by hiding with Dana, then emerges to kill her first man and declare her intent to kill many more. Later turning points illuminate the systemic machinery behind her choices: a prison hunger strike that reclaims her will, a tender moment setting her nephew's broken arm, and the shattering revelation that Joe's real name connects him to the knife Gaines gave her years earlier. These discoveries show that Sarat was never truly free — she was shaped by recruiters, enemies, and circumstances at every step. Benjamin's decision to study the war rather than bury its history becomes the novel's final turning point, as he chooses to share the truth even after burning the evidence.