A plantation is ravaged by border raiders. Ten-year-old Fancy Deverell is saved by a wise old slave named Atticus, who sets her on an extraordinary journey that will lead her headlong into the rough-and-tumble days of the Old West. The novel sweeps along with the relentless rhythm of those turbulent times...from a westering circus train to the gold and silver fields of Colorado, from the cutthroat world of the New York stage and the arcane shadows of magic and mysticism to the last legendary and tragic struggles of Geronimo and the Apache Nation.