In the lawless borderlands of the American West, young Diego Baca survives on instinct, hunger and the fierce will to stay alive. Fleeing the brutal man who raised him, Diego drifts from town to town until a chance encounter in San Bernardino puts him under the wing of Virge, a stagecoach driver who sees the good in him. Through hard work, steady guidance and the first kindness he has ever known, Diego begins to believe he might build an honest life.
But his past shadows every step he takes. As he travels across deserts, boomtowns and frontier outposts—from New Orleans to Arizona Territory to New Mexico—Diego must confront the fear, guilt and violence carved into him since childhood. When he finds an unexpected refuge in a ruined house near Las Vegas—and meets Hannah, a preacher’s daughter with secrets of her own—Diego discovers something he never imagined possible: a future worth choosing.