In the midst of Reconstruction, pioneer, livestock breeder, and would-be innkeeper Hamish "Cashdown" Musgrave brings his family into the Palouse Prairie. Soon Hamish's brother Callum goes missing and remains mysteriously elusive. The railroad refuses to build a line past the Musgrave stagecoach inn and store, and newcomers threaten the very existence of the Palus Indians, despite Hamish's efforts to help the band. Meanwhile, Hamish's attraction to the Paluses' sacred mountain, Steptoe Butte, becomes a fateful obsession. How will Hamish save his fortune? What will become of his spellbound love for Steptoe Butte? And what will he learn of Callum's long self-exile?