At seventeen years old, Odell Spurling is taller than most men, and all too ready to be treated like one. But nothing could prepare him for the Comanche raid that left him without a home or family. The girl he loves, Red Wing Wilson, was once a Comanche herself--stolen as a child and raised among Texans. With a promise to return to her, he sets off for revenge. But when the President of Texas attempts to make peace with the Comanche, and arranges to return Red Wing in a gesture of goodwill, Odell finds himself on a mission greater than mere revenge. To get her back, he'll have to contend with an unforgiving land, a sword-brandishing Prussian, and a Comanche warrior who has sworn to take his scalp.