Teenage boys, Emil and Able set out from Oakland, Nebraska, and travel north to experience the mysterious Indian territories and action-packed Wild West depicted in their dime novels. The plan is to become ranch hands at Cow Creek, but just two days in, Able gets injured and is forced to turn back for home. Naively, Emil forges ahead to face whatever the harsh terrain and its even harsher inhabitants are going to throw at him, eventually encountering wolves, violent storms, and the impossible decision of taking or sparing another human being's life in order to save his own.

The...