The Cecil family--which includes Mary Margaret, her sister Rosie, her brother-in-law Seth, her three teenaged children and a baby, and Granpa Crackenthorpe--travels from Boone's Lick, in Missouri, to a fort in Wyoming, where they hope to find Dick, Mary Margaret's husband. When they finally arrive, and Dick is located, Mary Margaret tells him she's throwing him over for his brother Seth. Coincidentally, the famous Fetterman Massacre occurs the next day, in which 80 American soldiers were slaughtered in an Indian ambush.

In the Missouri town of Boone's Lick, a colorful cast of characters stands on the edge of the Western frontier ready to push west to Fort Phil Kearny in Wyoming.

In the Missouri town of Boone's Lick, a colorful cast of characters stands on the edge of the Western frontier ready to push west to Fort Phil Kearny in Wyoming.