Pinto Lowery never wanted anything more than the chance to raise a family and find a piece of land he could call his own. But after fighting in the Civil War, he couldn’t settle, and instead drifted all over the West breaking mustangs, haunted by the ghosts of his fallen comrades.

All that changed in a flash.

There didn’t seem to be a good reason to leave mustanging to go work on the farm of Mister Tully Oakes while Oakes travels north on a cattle drive. The man had a reputation for being stingy, ornery and contrary. But when Pinto met Elsie Oakes and her young children, an old yearning stirs in his heart and Pinto decided to take Tully’s offer,

Time goes by quickly when the work is hard. Yet, while the corn is being harvested and everyone is around the fire at night, Pinto can almost fool himself into believing he’s found a loving family, and the first secure home he’s known since boyhood.

But the day of Tully’s return looms and the Hannigan gang has taken to raiding the local ranches—imperiling Pinto Lowery’s simple dreams of the future.