"Get to Independence Rock by the Fourth of July if you want to make it through the mountains before the snow flies." Gloriana Jude is a Kentucky girl determined to be part of manifest destiny; her goal to march across a continent to make her stamp on history. Risking everything, she and her husband and son leave the narrow hollows and sheltering hills of Wolf Creek, resolved to make a home in the West. Catastrophe waits at every river crossing; disease and destitution strike the unwary. When a head injury to her husband threatens their trip, she wonders if the risks outweigh the rewards. An Army patrol is there to lend security to the wagon train, but there's an Army scout who has her feeling anything but secure. At Fort Laramie, she meets Gregor, disinherited by his family and cast out to die. Who can she trust? Is this too much for a girl from Wolf Creek? Will they make it across the mountains in time?