Tom Malley is a young man of fifteen when he loses his parents on their way west. After caring for their bodies and not knowing what to do he continued traveling northwest. Starving to death he was asleep and rode his horse right into an Indian village. The remote tribe had heard of the white man but never seen one. They had a good laugh at his expense then took him in, taught him their language, and how to live in the harsh winter environment. He quickly realized he knew less than the smallest of the tribe about the great mother earth. One day after the long winter, while swimming in a snow melt stream with several braves, he dove to the bottom and found a gold nugget the size of a small bird egg. After inspecting the mineral he looked around to his surprise he discovered he was swimming in a stream laced with gold nuggets. It became his habit to swim often and collect the nuggets that were worthless to his adopted people. When returning from an elk hunt one day he was suddenly shot twice by arrows. A jealous brave had seen the woman he wanted for a wife watching Tom and had shot the arrows. After healing from that incident Tom was forced to move on. He took the gold he had hidden; traveled southeast, then with the mountain passes closing, he had to spend a lonely winter in a valley filled with elk. It was well into spring when he got out of the mountains and met a trapper that partnered up with him for the rendezvous. There he gets his first introduction to feminine pleasures. He also is instrumental in killing a hungry grizzly bear that is intent on killing their horses. Just before he leaves the rendezvous a drunken scalp hunter tries to force him to sell his horses, when Tom refuses the evil man shoots one and Tom fights the drunkard so his other horse can get away. It's only after he gets up that he discovers he mortally wounded the man that's still trying to kill him. Months later Tom finds himself in St. Louis to get his animals reshod and resupply himself. There he encounters a tough sheriff that's a bully and hates Indians as well as anyone that has the appearance of one. Circumstances demand he help a squaw that is brutalized by the sheriff after a physical confrontation that leaves the sheriff badly injured. He rides west with the squaw for three weeks to get her close to the villages then when she proves she can take care of herself he makes the decision to resume his travels east. With winter again coming he needed to resupply. It was the first town he intended to stop in since St. Louis. The instant he rode in he knew it was a mistake and didn't stop. However he did manage to get the Warden Brothers attention and they followed him in hopes of robbing a stranger. Once again Tom is forced to deal with men that have ill intentions toward him. He leads the four brothers deep into the wilderness where they meet more than their match. During his travels Tom Malley meets many colorful and expressive people, each having an influence on his life. The interactions with these people and the experiences he goes through molds him into the man he is destined to become.