Some men aren't meant for safe pastures.

Home cooking, a warm bed, family -- all these things Tyler's father, Black Jack Bohannon, gave up for an unknown destiny. Now, at fourteen, Tyler is following in his father's footsteps. He's leaving his comfortable home in Sweet Creek, Missouri, for the frontier of the unsettled West.

Luckily he's not going alone. Isaac Peerce, Tyler's best friend and a newly freed slave, is going with him. Both boys are looking for adventure and new beginnings.

But the frontier is an unforgiving place, and one mistake lands the boys in a heap of trouble. And just when they need each other the most, their friendship is tested. They must find a way to work together, or Tyler and Isaac could become two more victims of the rugged American West.