Written in the language of the period, this vivid and utterly transfixing love story between two men is set in the 19th-century American Midwest. Douglas Fortescue, a privileged poet from London, flees scandal at home to go to America to start a new life. When Joshua Jenkyns, a young outlaw who shot his first man at age six, captures Douglas and holds him hostage, a remarkable secret is revealed - and the two men grow closer.