In February 1849, Lorenzo, a Mexican-American war veteran, walks west from Albuquerque toward the Alta California gold fields. Lost in the Ponderosa Pines of the San Francisco Peaks mountain range, Lorenzo is saved from hypothermia and Cholera by Hanna, a Jewish sheep rancher living alone.

Hanna and Lorenzo build a supply station for the surveyors and crews of the Beale Wagon Road, while Hanna schools their three children, Jeremiah, Zachary, and Sarah.