In 1959, 20-year-old college dropout Chuck McManis strolls the geyser boardwalks in Yellowstone National Park when an earthquake plunges him eighty years back in time, into the middle of an Indian war. Into his personal past, too - his great-grandfather, his boyhood idol, but not a hero after all. Hapless Chuck needs instructions for sheer survival. He will not abandon Eliza Byrne, the woman who teaches him. But nothing matters if they never make it back to civilization. No matter when it could be.