A young lieutenant and a frontier guide are sent from a small fort into nearby hills to procure game while unrest linked to the Ghost Dance and Sitting Bull keeps the garrison uneasy. Their expedition and related patrols involve tracking, horse theft, scouting, skirmishes, and the dangers of messenger duty, testing endurance and leadership. The narrative strings together episodic chapters of hunting, reinforcements, encounters with an ambiguous squawman figure and Indian police, and escalating clashes that culminate in major engagements and an eventual return to the post. Action, survival skills, and the fraught relations between military units and Native communities drive the account.