Beautiful sixteen-year-old Cherolyn Adamson accompanies her father on a long pilgrimage from Philadelphia to California aboard a wagon train to visit her dying grandfather. Mid-way in their journey they fall prey to a Kiowa war party. Cherolyn alone survives the brutal massacre and is taken captive. After nearly a year of captivity, she finally manages to escape and ends up in Abilene, Texas where she is branded an Indian whore for having lived with the Kiowa. Fueled by the contempt and constant ridicule of a prejudiced white society, she decides to continue her journey to California. In San Francisco she meets and falls in love with the dashing Derek Matthews. Together they find that beneath the opulence of San Francisco's elite society lies a web of mendacity and betrayal. That discovery leads them on a perilous journey through the snow-covered Sierra Nevada Mountains and into the sights of a hungry pack of wolves.