Slowly dying in the saddle from a bullet wound in his hip, Trace found a cave and crawled in. When he awoke there was a woman kneeling beside him attending to his wound.

"Leaving their Pennsylvania home to forge a new life in the untamed Oregon Territory of 1845, the Colter family is ambushed by a kill crazy gang of Indians on the Oregon Trail. Fifteen-year-old Tim Colter manages to escape and hide--only to return and find his parents butchered, his sisters Nancy and Margaret missing. Forced to fight for his life, the young Colter embarks on a perilous journey across a lawless wilderness, hoping to save his sisters...

Barnaby Skye, the most durable and unforgettable character in modern Western fiction, returns in this harrowing tale of survival from his early years in the Rockies. In the midst of a brutal winter, Skye's beloved Crow Indian wife, Victoria, is critically wounded when a Blackfeet raiding party attacks a Crow hunting camp. Despite Skye's attempts at doctoring, Victoria's life hangs in the balance as the two, left alone in the frozen wilderness, struggle...