Georgia, 1898: On what may be the last day of his life, Captain Frederick Benteen -- the man who, in the minds of many Americans, might have saved Custer's Seventh Cavalry from death at Little Bighorn -- receives a letter from an ambitious boy offering to "restore" his reputation. In the years since, Benteen has silently watched as the public canonized Custer for dying and cursed Benteen for surviving.

Now, at last, as he begins to put down some account of those two horrific days pinned down on a ridge in Montana, Benteen finds himself haunted by his lost companions: Star-Gazer, Handsome...