Simon Steele and his friend, Buell Mace, leave home at nineteen, Simon because there's no reason to stay and Buell because there's every reason to run. At a roadhouse outside Fort Laramie, Wyoming Territory, where there are few rules and even fewer consequences if you break one, Simon finds work as the house's supply man and Buell as an enforcer. Hanging tenaciously to the morals of his parents, and to the memory of the woman who rejected him,

Surviving on a dirt-poor farm in 1850s Nebraska tests Paul Steele's confidence in himself. His deceitful younger brother lives on the fertile and thriving family farm while Paul struggles to raise a family in a sod hut. Paul and his wife, Ana, meet adversity head-on and teach their children the value of honesty, loyalty and dedication. Their eldest son, Simon, learns from the hardships and triumphs, but his best friend, Buell, is very different.