By road, foot, mountain bike, and canoe, Steven and Alex experience the vast landscape and try to capture an understanding of the Wild Northwest.
Using the letters of the 19th-century explorer Pierre Jean De Smet, Steven Faulkner and his eighteen-year-old son, Alex, follow De Smet across the High Plains to the fur trappers' rendezvous on the Green River, then on to the Lewis and Clark Trail, where they are taken over the Rockies–the part of the journey that almost killed the two explorers–and into the homeland of the Nez Perce whose fate is strangely tied to these emissaries from the east
Through many chance encounters with modern residents, like Bubba, the LA gangster taking refuge in Idaho's mountains; or Jean, the retired school teacher who as a visceral hatred of the EPA; and even Mary, the dog trainer who fought the Forest Service for ten years and won at the high cost of $100,000; Steven and Alex are able to broaden their perspective of the terrain, and themselves, in the process.