The Plains: A Novel of the American West

John Tylor and Will Cunningham leave the Missouri River and travel into the northern Plains, hoping to disappear into country where Tylor’s past cannot reach him. After Tylor rescues a wounded hawk foretold in his dreams, the two men encounter an Arapaho party and are saved by Gray Bear and a small Shoshoni band who interpret the bird as part of a larger prophecy.

Fenway McKeever survives the river and resumes his pursuit, while the humiliated Arapaho follow the travellers for their guns and horses. Tylor must help the Shoshoni reach the mountains while protecting the injured hawk, turning his flight from responsibility into a test of whether he can accept obligations to people whose lives have become bound to his own.