"It is 1830, and the Berrybender family, rich, aristocratic, English, and fiercely out of place, is on its way up the Missouri River to see the American West as it begins to open up." "Accompanied by a large and varied collection of retainers, Lord and Lady Berrybender have abandoned their palatial home in England to explore the frontier and to broaden the horizons of their children, who include Tasmin, a budding young woman of grit, beauty, and determination,...

Captain Woodrow Call, Augustus McCrae's old partner, is now a bounty hunter hired to track down a brutal Mexican bandit. Riding with Call are an Eastern city slicker, a witless deputy, and one of the last members of the hat Creek outfit, Pea Eye Parker, now married to Lorena-once Gue McCrae's sweetheart. Their long chase leads them across the last wild stretches of the west and finally into a hellhole known as Crow Town.

Two Texas Rangers fight Indians and bandits while trying to sort affairs with their women. One is Gus McCrae, a hard-drinking womanizer jilted by his love, the other is sober Woodrow Call, father of a boy by a prostitute. By the author of Lonesome Dove.