In the wide-open spaces of the early West, the only limit on a man's stake in the future is the extent of his vision. But for every fortune made in gold or fur, lives are lost in gunsmoke and dust. Titus and his fellow trappers have come down from their mountain haunts to winter in the wild frontier town of Taos. It's a time for revelry and rabble-rousing...and a place where every desire can be satisfied - for a price. For a man like Titus Bass, the Sweet Lake rendezvous is no more than a diversion from a greater destiny. In a country where the rewards you reap are measured by the risks you take, Titus longs to set out by himself, following his own medicine. But first he'll fight alongside the other trappers and hired Mexican soldiers to protect the citizens of Taos from a band of raiding Comanche. And he'll face a deadly rendezvous with the Arapaho warrior who took his scalp two long summers ago. Yet that is only the beginning of the mountain man's remarkable journey. From the blistering heat of the southwestern desert to the frozen rivers of the northern plain, Bass will face the ultimate test of his strength, resourcefulness, and courage.