On Killdeer Mountain, Major Charles Rawley had won a reputation for ruthlessness in battle, until a rare attack of conscience leads him to spare a band of Indian women and children. By doing so, a notorious Sioux warrior runs free and Rawley is accused of cowardice. To redeem his honour, he sets out to recapture the bloodthirsty Spotted Horse, stalking his man mercilessly, taking him prisoner and ultimately ensuring his place in the hero's roll of honour when he is killed preventing the Indian's second escape.
In 1866, Rawley's name is about to become a legend of the Old West, until Yankee journalist Sam Morrison encounters a mysterious, poncho-clad, hollow-eyed figure who tells a dramatically different story about what really happened on Killdeer Mountain. Morrison comes to realise that not everything in the West is quite as it seems...
