The novel takes place in the Wyoming Territory, which is rich in history. Famous frontiersmen such as Jim Bridger, John Colter, Kit Carson, Jebediah Smith and General John Fremont spent time exploring the land and hunting for beaver pelts. Wyoming was also home to many plains Indians and it is in this backdrop that this novel takes place. It is about Swedish immigrants, a boy and his mother, who find themselves in the Wyoming Territory in the 1870's. The boy, Esben Hjerstedt, and mother live with the Lakota Sioux after his mother marries a Sioux Warrior named Grey Wolf. His mother and Grey Wolf are savagely murdered by six wasichus, Sioux for white men.The rest of the novel has Esben seeking revenge on the people responsible for killing his mother and Grey Wolf, his adoptive father.