Ben Ide is a failure in the horse trade because he loves horses more than money. A few bad deals have turned the world against him. His greatest adversary is his father, who thinks Ben good for nothing. Determined to show what he is made of and what he can do, Ben pursues a herd of wild horses. The herd leads him directly into danger: cattle thieves with connections in high places. Distrusted by the woman he loves, menaced by killers, and hounded by slander, Ben finds his day of reckoning at the edge of Forlorn River. What he does next will make him an outcast or a hero.