The abduction of nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker kicks off a series of increasingly deadly confrontations between her Comanche captors and the newly independent Texas. As the Comanche grow ever more desperate to protect their lands from Texan incursions, Cynthia Ann's eventual rescue sees her violently removed from her new native family, and dropped back into a seemingly hostile foreign culture, while pushing her son - the last Comanche leader - on a campaign of revenge that will ultimately bring down their empire.

When Kansas becomes a battleground in the national debate over slavery, settlers on both sides of the issue pour into the territory to determine its future.