It is the first of six novels in Guthrie's sequence dealing with the Oregon Trail and the development of Montana from 1830, the time of the mountain men, to "the cattle empire of the 1880s to the near present.

Boone Caudill is a young man who lives in Kentucky with his family as people are pushing further and further west in the Americas.

As they arrive into the next city, Jim decides to sell his mule and wagon for some money to travel and join Boone.

The sheriff takes them to court, and after a quick trial the more sophisticated Bedwell is given the rights to the rifle, as everyone believes it is his anyway.

Boone is sentenced to spend time in the jail, but he refuses to admit that he did anything wrong so the sheriff flogs him in hopes of getting a confession.

[4] There the boys meet Dick Summers, the boat's hunter and guide, who becomes a role model for Boone in particular, whose explosive temper has gotten into more trouble than he's been able to completely avoid.

[5] Soon after, the Blackfeet attack and destroy the keelboat and kill everyone on her except the three friends Caudill, Deakins, and Summers, who manage to escape.

A good portion of the novel involves Boone Caudill becoming a fur trapper and dealing with the hardships as he moves further from civilization.

Dick Summers realizes that he is too old to continue the life of a mountain man and leaves Jim Deakins and Boone Caudill to return to his land in Missouri to farm.

He proceeds to kill Jim Deakins and leave Teal Eye, fleeing back east.

Boone cannot tolerate his confusion and the settled life and mores in Kentucky and, depending on one's point of view, either seduces or rapes a young neighbor girl, who despite her sobbing asks when they'll get married.

In a theme repeated throughout Guthrie's trilogy, Boone refers to the destruction of the pristine West the first whites had known: "It's all sp'iled, I reckon, Dick.