Carson Fielding trains horses for the millionaire Magnus Yarborough. Carson also has the task of teaching Yarborough's wife to ride, and when he falls in love with her, he and she must face the consequences of Magnus's vengeance, which takes an unusual and horrifying form. Set in a South Dakota town, the story explodes in a series of violent events involving not only Carson but a Lakota man named Ted Kills Many and an exchange student from Germany, who join forces in a mission to counteract the wrath of the vicious Magnus.