Chauncey Miller was twenty-three years old when he discovered that his father had been murdered before he was born. Thus begins his quest to discover the two men responsible. The pursuit takes Chauncey and his brother Franklin from the small town of Goshen, Indiana in the late 1880's through the mining districts of the west in the search for the two men that their sister described as the killers. The train ride through the emerging territories offers them the opportunity to encounter numerous adventures throughout the old west. The unforgettably distinctive two fugitives leave a faint trail that evaporates in Missoula, Montana. Chauncey must choose to stay with his brother and new found friends in Missoula, or proceed alone into the wilderness of the Coeur D'Alene Idaho mining areas. Chauncey hits a dead end in Idaho. The man he seeks is either nowhere to be found, or dead. Instead of finding his father's killer, Chauncey finds that revenge is not what he had been seeking after all. The story is a historical rendition of the late 19th and early 20th century mining areas of the west with the lawlessness and challenges of the wilderness that existed west of the Mississippi.