Soon after paleontologist Norman "Pick" Pickford happens on a discovery in Montana that could prove to be revolutionary, a menacing visitor is murdered and Mike Wire, retired L.A. homicide detective and ranch foreman, realizes that the fossils may be worth killing for.

Wolf, a Native American, is being pursued by the FBI for taking the law into his own hands after his mother is raped and killed. Wolf sets out across the American West, discovering new friendships and lost loves, riding toward the Teton mountain range, where he will spread his mother's ashes.