When Ned Giles is orphaned as a teenager, he heads West hoping to leave his troubles behind by joining the 1932 Great Apache Expedition on their search for the young son of a wealthy Mexican landowner who was kidnapped by wild Apaches. But the expedition's goal becomes compromised when they encounter a wild Apache girl in a Mexican jail cell, victim of a Mexican massacre of her tribe that has left her orphaned and unwilling to eat or speak. Ned's growing feelings for the troubled girl soon force him to choose allegiances and make a decision that will haunt him forever. Based on historical fact, Jim Fergus takes readers on a journey of magnificent sweep and heartbreaking consequence.