Young Revolutionary War veteran Barnabas Locke makes winter camp in an isolated canyon in the Colorado wilderness, finding pictographs and petroglyphs made by the Ancient Ones. His elderly Arapaho mentor appears like a dream at his fire, issuing a warning but leaving behind a very real huge black dog. Barnabas uses all his frontier skills and learns new ones to survive a mountain winter, but traps himself in a manmade pit, discovers a mysterious abandoned city, and outruns an unnaturally large and beautiful spotted cat. As spring arrives, he renews his search for his friend Squando and encounters a band of Utes traveling to the annual celebration of the Bear Dance, winning the band's approval but also the enmity of a vicious dog baiter. At the Bear Dance, all hell breaks loose and romance flourishes.