Half-Apache and half-Tejana, fifteen-year-old Kóshkeya, whose Spanish name is Manuela Ballardo, disguises herself as a boy in order to scout for a party of Texian prospectors led by James Bowie and his brother Rezin. In the now-famous Indian fight at San Sabá, she so distinguishes herself that she is asked to scout for the Texas Army during the Texas Revolution and later, during the Comanche War, for the Texas Rangers.