Life has not been easy for young cowboy Lonnie Gentry. Lonnie and his mother live alone, working hard, raising cattle and horses on their remote Colorado mountain ranch. Now the thirteen-year-old must travel over perilous mountains to return money stolen by his mother's outlaw boyfriend to a deputy U.S. marshal. On Lonnie's journey, he's joined by young Casey Stoveville, daughter of a sheriff killed by theoutlaws. The unlikely pair is attacked by an enraged grizzly, encounter a crazy ex-Confederate who may or may not be after the stolen money, and must battle the deadly outlaws shadowing their every< move, intent on killing them and retrieving the loot. It's a man's job. And it's going to take a man—and the woman the man loves—to see it through.

Everyone in the Never Summer Mountains knows about the ancient Indian curse on Skull Canyon. That’s why most folks stay clear of the forbidding chasm that sits up in the highest, remotest reaches of the range, not far from the ranch young Lonnie Gentry shares with his mother and infant half brother. Lonnie finds himself near Skull Canyon one day, working cows. A man’s agonized wail lures him into the canyon, where he finds a youth only a few years older than himself dying from a gunshot wound. Lonnie spends the night in the canyon, lending comfort to the wounded Cade McLory. When the sun comes up, McLory is dead and Lonnie, having let nightfall find him in the forbidden canyon, knows he is probably cursed. Later, when savage men pour into the remote canyon, apparently searching for something they’re willing to kill to keep others from finding, Lonnie learns the extent of Skull Canyon’s horror.