In 1841, St. Louis businessman Guy Strauss had sent his hopes, his son, and his money up the Missouri River to the Yellowstone, where he was opening a trading post under the command of a wild mountain man named Broken Leg Fitzhugh. Strauss knew the plan was fraught with danger. But he didn't know how many ways it could go wrong, or who would be the first to die. The Rocky Mountain Company had an enemy in a rival company, and Fitzhugh-fierce, profane, and proud-had one very deadly enemy of his own. For Strauss' son, Maxim, the fight for survival meant becoming a man. When bootleg alcohol is discovered on his own riverboat, Maxim takes a stand-against those who are intentionally fanning the flames of violence. With Maxim under siege, a father leaves his home in St. Louis-to save his son and his dream from a gathering storm of blood, betrayal and murder.