After Fort Dodge, wagon master Bruce Cowan had hoped the journey to Wagon Mound would get easier. That lasted but a few days.



It horrified the settlers when they came across the burning remains of a smaller wagon train. Not one survivor. Bandits attacked this time, not Indians.



Every day brings a fresh crisis. Trent and Pat, the McLeod brothers, with their gun fighting skills, provide Bruce and the wagon train protection and much needed guidance. Sometime even that isn't enough when they face mother nature at her most destructive.



The savage Comanches are on the warpath. The Arapahos are also on a killing spree since the massacre of Sand Creek. Trent and Pat do their best to avoid these threats. When attacked, many times by surprise, there are deadly consequences.



Throughout it all, Trent tries his best to get closer to Becky Cowan. Just when he thinks things are going well, something else comes up to drive a wedge between them again.



The settlers must remain on guard at all times as obstacles confront them. Will the Cowans reach Wagon Mound or perish in the desert as others have before them? Should they continue their perilous journey west or leave the trail and set up their homestead?