In the spring of 1885, seventeen-year-old Jessilyn Harney finds herself orphaned and alone on her family s homestead. Desperate to fend off starvation and predatory neighbours, she cuts her hair, binds her chest, saddles her beloved mare, and sets off across the mountains to find her gun-slinging fugitive brother Noah and bring him home. A talented sharpshooter herself, Jess s quest lands her in the employ of the territory s violent, capricious governor, whose militia is also hunting Noah ^ dead or alive.