On a mission to save his daughter’s life, a courageous adventurer contends with raging rivers, hostile enemies, and harrowing memories in this gripping historical novel based on the lives of America’s mountain men Five years after leaving Pennsylvania to seek his fortune in the West, Sam Morgan has experienced the epic highs and grim lows of a frontiersman’s life. When he and his Crow Indian wife were expelled from Mexican California along with the rest of Jedediah Smith’s brigade of fur trappers, Sam rushed the pregnant and ailing Meadowlark to the mission at Monterey—only to watch helplessly as his worst nightmare became reality. Forced to leave his infant daughter, Esperanza, behind, Sam heads once again into the vast and treacherous wilderness between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. In Santa Fe, he finds comfort in the arms of the beautiful widow Doña Paloma and makes enough money to rescue his daughter. But when Sam returns to California, he learns that Esperanza has been kidnapped. Rescuing her will be the mountain man’s most dangerous and challenging adventure yet.