Returning home to Jefferson, Mississippi, at the end of the First World War, young Bayard Sartoris grieves the loss of his twin brother, John. Despite the stabilizing influence of his marriage to the lovely Narcissa Benbow, young Bayard's recklessness grows as the days pass, and hastens the destruction of the Sartoris family, who are still living under the shadow of Bayard's deceased, heroic great-grandfather. A story of a decaying family confronting the debilitating effects of war, Sartoris is a commentary on social class and family conditions in the post-war world of the American South.