When her whole tribe disappears from Westerners, Karana and her brother have to survive themselves. However, her brother is killed by wild dogs, and, all alone, she needs to survive on her own before befriending the very dog that killed her brother. She sometimes has hard struggle but passes what people think women can't do and does it with no help at all but the knowledge she learned as a young girl

When her husband dies en route to America, Martha Price and her daughter Hilary are left to carry out his dream: the introduction of Hereford cattle into the American West. They enlist Sam "Bulldog" Burnett in their efforts to transport their lone bull, a Hereford named Vindicator, to a breeder in Texas, but the trail is fraught with danger and even Burnett doubts the survival potential of this "rare breed" of cattle.