Ten-year old Matthew Stanford is kidnapped by three Civil War deserters who quit a losing cause and head west . In the wake of a killing spree they leave ex-Army tracker JD Elder for dead. When Elder is nursed back to health by Matthew's mother and learns that her son was kidnapped by the men who attempted to kill him, the hunt is on. Matthew quickly goes from being an overly protected preacher's son to a kid struggling for survival. When Elder, the Confederates, and Matthew converge on a small Montana town, the results are cataclysmic for all of them-but, that's just the beginning of Matthew's heart-wrenching story.