Hawken is a rugged drifter and loner who meets and comes to rescue a young Shawnee woman, named "Spirit" in 1840s Tennessee, whom he leaves after saving her from a rouge group of Shawnee Indians. After taking up residence with an old fur trapper and old friend named Jeb Kline, Hawken later meets Spirit again, who runs away from a local fur trader named Tackett, to whom she is sold. Soon, Hawken is up against Tackett and a posse of hired killers, as well as a greedy and racist land owner, named Hickman, whose long abused son Noel narrates the entire story, comes to his and Spirit's aid to help them survive.