In a cabin by the Brazos, a black man kneels, holding the body of his infant daughter in his arms. After the burying, after the mourning, Nate Wagoner will do what he must do. Riding bareback on a mule, hardened to the taunts and indignation of his neighbors, he will set out to hunt down the Comanches who killed his child and rode off with his wife and two elder daughters.
It is a journey that will take him through a land blazing with hatred – between the Anglos and the Mexicans, Comanches and Kiowas. To those who cross his path, he will become known as Walks Without a Soul, and his legend as a hunter and fighter will spread from the Staked Plains to the Arkanasas River. But it is in the dust, blood and fury of the trail ahead that Nate will discover who he really is and where he really stands – as a husband, a father and a man.