"Phillip Hamilton, Revolutionary War veteran and a champion of American business, is determined to teach his condescending wastrel of a son, Richard, what it means to be a man. Early in 1825, he orders Richard to deliver thirty thousand dollars to his offices in Saint Louis, a bustling city on the edge of the American frontier. Richard arrives in Saint Louis, only to be set upon by thieves, beaten, and sold to the Maria, a tidy vessel illegally headed for the upper Missouri. While deciding if he should shoot Richard to be rid of him, wily Indian trader Travis Hartman hesitates on a whim. In the company of rough men who live by a code beyond Richard's understanding, he slowly grows stronger ... and increasingly bewildered and disillusioned with the truths he once believed. In the mountains, the grief-stricken Shoshoni medicine woman, Heals Like a Willow, buries her beloved husband and infant son and begins an arduous journey home. She is captured by Packrat, a young Pawnee who sees her as a precious trophy who will raise his standing among his people and grant him revenge against the father who shunned him. When their paths finally cross near the mouth of the Platte River, the collision will change their lives forever."