America was still a young nation experiencing growing pains. As more white people migrated into the Colorado Territory, forcibly displacing its original tenants, the inevitable result was tension.

This is the story of three men who would leave their mark on this American frontier: Emerson Granger, a peaceful man born in an isolated homestead on the Colorado front range, during an episode of horrific violence; abolitionist Silas Soule, who came west to crusade against slavery; and John Chivington, a fiery Midwestern preacher hoping to make a name for himself.

As the whites continued encroaching on Indian land, and the Indians fought back, bloody clashes were inescapable. Friends and family, lovers and foes, none would be spared from the building tension.

That tension boiled over in an act of unspeakable brutality, at a remote and unremarkable settlement known as Sand Creek.