When time-warped, astronaut Jim Parker found another astronaut's flight jacket on a Comanche brave in 1860. He knew he was not the only one who had been thrown back in time. If the astronaut was alive, Jim had to find him. But another event was about to interrupt his search--the Civil War. Known to the Indians as the Lone Wanderer, he left the Indian village and rode back into the white man's world. While in Washington, Jim learns the astronaut's name--Brian Harmon, a Union soldier wounded at Bull Run. But Major Barkley has a job only Jim can do, take a cavalry company through Indian country to California and lead a gold train back. Facing outlaws, Indians, traitors and Confederates, Jim confronts an old Texas Ranger friend, who is now a rebel major. Jim's search for Harmon continues on into the building of the transcontinental railroad where he meets an old enemy.