A fur trapper by trade, Preacher can smell a bad deal from any direction no matter how well it's disguised. It wasn't always that way—he's got the scars to prove it. Now he's ready to pass on his deadly survival skills to a boy named Hawk, who just might be his son...

Preacher and Hawk ride out of the Rockies and into St. Louis, loaded with furs. It's Hawk's first trip to civilization and the moment he lays eyes on young Chessie Dayton he's lost in more ways than one. When Chessie unwisely signs on for a gold-hungry expedition into the lawless mountains, Hawk convinces Preacher to trail the outfit because they're all headed straight to the sacred Indian grounds known as the Black Hills—a land of no return. To come out of it alive a lot of people will have to die. And Preacher's going to need a heap of bullets for this journey into hell...