Part history, part romance, and part action-adventure novel follows the fortunes of Ebenezer Paint and his descendants - rough and tough individuals caught up in Civil War river battles, epic cattle drives through drought and blizzards, the horrors of Wounded Knee, the desperation of the dust bowl, and the prosperity of the roaring 1920s. The cast includes a grizzled Mississippi steamboat merchant, two horse-thieving brothers, five Annie Oakley-like sisters who can outride any cowboy, a half-Sioux bride who demands her new family claim her heritage, and a courageous daughter who defies her father and braves the West alone. The Paint family must battle both internal and external elements, and learn to live with spirit and wit. Letters and diaries from the author's own family archives form the basis for all the events and characters for richly detailed authenticity and deep emotional power. Reach spans Vicksburg up through Montana and the Dakotas, four generations from the Civil War to the Great Depression.