In 1837 Caleb Landers flees his trading post north of Taos, New Mexico to avoid the Mexican Army. Caleb, along with his friend and scout, Thomas Lyon, take a pack train from Taos to Bents Fort on the Arkansas River-the only outpost between Santa Fe and Independence, Missouri. There they meet Lope de Saavedra (aka "Flower Watcher") who agrees to lead them across Texas to Galveston Bay. The story is about a life and death journey across Texas, northwest to southeast-Taos to Galveston Bay. For Flower Watcher it is his death march. For Caleb and his associates, it is where they will start a new...

Dutch Fields wants the homestead of Charles Lassiter, a frontier muzzleloader riflesmith, and his son, William ("Billy"). Unable to coerce Caleb's father to sell, Dutch and his son Claude (a/k/a "Slip") murder Charles Lassiter. Slip lives up to the nickname given him by some mountain men and disappears. After taking personal retribution against Dutch, Billy embarks on an 800-mile journey across the frontier's "prairie ocean," making his way through Indian lands until he reaches Santa Fe, in what was then a part of Mexico. Billy changes his name to "Caleb Landers" to disassociate himself from...