Caleb Johnson is one of a dying breed, a mountain man who lives in a log cabin near the town of Bear Creek, Colorado. What sets him even more apart from others; he is a black man who has chosen to set himself apart from what others call civilization. Benjamin Winthrop is a former Confederate cavalry officer. He's had to sell his family's Louisiana plantation, and is on his way to settle in Oregon and start a new life. The lives of these two disparate men intersect in Bear Creek, when Ben runs afoul of a trio of local toughs who decide to hang him for his effrontery. Caleb has the bad luck to happen along just in time to save Ben's neck from being stretched, creating a relationship that neither man is comfortable with at first. When Ben hires Caleb to guide him to Oregon, things become complicated beyond either man's understanding.