Rebecca Joan Thacker had just celebrated her 11th birthday when word was received that her father had been killed in the Civil War. She was barely 13 when two bushwhackers dragged her into the barn on the family farm and raped her. The month before her 14th birthday she gave birth to a baby girl. A month prior to her 15th birthday, Becky’s mother died, leaving her all alone to raise a child.

Becky’s uncles, Ike, Jesse, and Caleb Branson were lawmen in the West. One by one, the Branson brothers left the hills of Missouri and headed west. Ike and Jesse worked their way across the land working as ranch hands, Indian scouts, and finally lawmen. Caleb lost his wife and newborn child, sold his farm, and headed to Texas to try and become a Texas Ranger. Ike and Jesse Branson become deputy US marshals, Ike in New Mexico and Jesse in California.

Becky Thacker’s mother was a Branson before she married. Becky was the last of the clan to leave Missouri and seek the wide open spaces of the west. Missouri provided no opportunities for Becky, so she joined a small wagon train bound for Texas and a new life away from the accusing eyes of pious neighbors. The wagon train was attacked by Indians and Becky found herself alone in the wilds with only a shotgun and her grit to sustain her and her baby daughter. After surviving a harrowing journey to Dallas, Texas, she established a life for herself and her daughter, Susan.

Then her world was turned upside down when Comancheros abducted her daughter. After the men in her church and the man who represented the law refused to go after the Comancheros, Becky took the only recourse available and went after them herself.

During the quest to find and get her daughter, Becky meets Kenny Branson, the son of one of her cousins. Becky and her daughter, Susan, both love Kenny but he is her uncle’s son. Nothing can come of love between first cousins.