In the spring of 1881, William Bell and his son-in-law Walter leave their families in Pickering, Ontario, and head west in hopes of securing land in what was then the North-West Territories. At fifty-six William is determined to keep a promise made to his dead wife, Annie, that they find land and settle where they can make a life for themselves on their own terms, a place where their family can forge a future beholden to none. And so it is that the two make their way first to Winnipeg, then on to Portage la Prairie-where the railroad ends-passing north of Brandon on foot and out into the vast unbroken heartland of the continent.