America emerges from the trauma of the Civil War to find itself convulsed by rapid and often violent social and political change. Millions of land-hungry emigrants from all over the world flock to claim a piece of the newly 'liberated' Indian territories.
 
The prospect of overnight fortunes attracts a flood of gold miners, prospectors, con men, gamblers, and homesteaders to the booming territories as the railroads open up more and more of the frontier for settlement. The dispossessed and impoverished Native Americans are swept by messianic movements that promise the return of the vast buffalo herds.
 
In the midst of this upheaval, Purchase McLennan fights to retain the family legacy-the great patriarchal rock now the target of an unscrupulous speculator. The forces of greed, desperation, bigotry and ambition collide in a shattering climax that ushers in the new century and a profoundly changed America.