Tate Saint, man of the mountains, was grieving his wife when Jim Beckwourth brought word from Kit Carson that he was needed at Bent's Fort. Eager to put his loss behind him and anxious to know what his mentor and friend needed, Tate set out for the fort. He had been summoned to help a young woman, Maggie O'Shaunessy, find her father, a man that was searching for gold and riches in the high country of the Rockies. Begrudgingly accepting the job as combination caretaker, teacher and protector of a fiery redhead from the city, Tate and Maggie set out to comb the mountains for her last living relative.

Meeting the challenges of the wilderness with confrontations with grizzlies, mountains storms, renegade mountain men, and warring Indian tribes, Tate and Maggie rescue a young Indian maiden and set out to return her to her people. With a journey that takes them through the mountains and to the Bayou Salado, danger seems to always be at hand. Then they find sign of her father, and set out to follow his trail, a trail that leads through mountain valley, across the high country above timberline and down into the flats that are filled with Cheyenne, Crow and Yamparika Ute Indians. With conflict and danger their constant companion, the two young people are forced to turn to one another to survive and hopefully find the girl's father before it's too late.