Hannibal Brinks left his boyhood home in Missouri - he was just sixteen years old. He joined a small wagon train headed west. On the way, he met two brothers who were mountain men and traveled to the Rockies with them. After he leaves, the wagon train encounters Arapaho horse thieves and then is attacked by a large number of hostiles. They hold off the Indians for two days until finally the hostiles withdraw. Hannibal makes it to the Rockies, finds a wounded Indian girl named Morning Star, and nurses her back to health. She becomes his common law wife. Hannibal, Morning Star, and the Macintyre brothers head for the rendezvous. While there, Hannibal is forced to kill two men while defending his wife. Hannibal, his wife, and two friends, head back to the Rockies for an uncertain future. The price of beaver plews has plummeted and the mountain man's way of life is coming to an end. What to do next is the question.