John Skipper is thrown into the world of the mountain-dwelling Cherokee after a land and jewel prospector murders his family. During his stay in the care of the Cherokee people, he meets Tsalahi Hinote, the daughter of Red Tree, the Cherokee chief. John discovers that George Prescott, the man who murdered his family, had done so in order to profit from emeralds he found on Cherokee land. John subsequently takes his revenge on Prescott and departs, taking Tsalahi with him - leaving the Cherokee to fend off blame from the white settlers who seek to possess their land.
John's impetuous actions catch up with him years later when his youngest son, George Washington Skipper, is abducted by a Cherokee woman who had befriended Tsalahi before her death in bearing little George. John and his sons John, Van, and Samuel search diligently for George. When he cannot be found, Samuel blames himself for what appears to be the death of his beloved younger brother. Unknown to John and his sons, George and his now-surrogate, Walking Wind, have pressed onward to meet the remaining tribes that are being relocated. Years pass and the young Skipper men grow up. George, who has been renamed Runaway Swimmer, marries and becomes a successful farmer and protégé to a Cherokee leader.
Samuel also becomes a farmer and has several children, the oldest of whom he names after the brother he still mourns. When his son is called into service, Samuel volunteers in an attempt to protect him. Meanwhile, Runaway, a seasoned veteran in the Confederate Army, is wounded and sent to Mobile , Alabama to train soldiers who, in his estimation, are all too old or too young to fight. The brothers look for a future that may never be, and remember a past that could have been.
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