More than two hundred Lakota Indians die in a skirmish with the Seventh Cavalry near Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota. Brave Eagle is saved by his passion for reading-he misses the tragedy as he travels to the library in Rapid City, South Dakota, and hears later of his wife Shaded Feather's likely death.
Brave Eagle returns to Wounded Knee and finds Onashola, who has also survived but lost her husband and son. They start a new life together in Rapid City where they eventually fall in love, marry, and have two daughters together, believing they finally have a chance for a peaceful life.
They live quietly until a cash-hungry baron threatens their hard-won happiness, sending men into their home searching for a rumored treasure map to a sealed Black Hills gold mine. Kidnapping daughters Maka and Wishiwu, the thieves set out for California after finding a key to a safe deposit box.
But Brave Eagle isn't about to let anyone or anything else rob him of his most basic rights, whether it's the land baron's goons or an earthquake that strikes San Francisco as he seeks to reunite his family.