Matt McLaren was only a boy when Indians killed his parents and kidnapped his three-year-old sister. He sets out to find her, is held as a virtual slave by a cruel innkeeper, and is rescued by a kindly old man who teaches him the rudiments of wilderness survival.When the vengeful innkeeper guns the old man down, Matt kills him and heads through the Cumberland Gap into the Can-tuc-kee Indian Territory to join a group of adventurous long hunters. He's captured by Indians and escapes back to civilization, where he helps settle the rugged, majestic Virginia frontier he has come to love. This story is told against a backdrop of real history.