In the year 1746, after the armies of the Scottish Highlands rebelling against the King of England were at last defeated at the Battle of Culloden, the English government began a vicious campaign of punishment and humiliation against the people of Scotland. Hundreds of innocent men, women and children were summarily rounded up and put to the sword. Faced with such brutality, many Scots were forced to abandon their homeland and seek a new life on foreign shores. Such was the decision of Jamie MacDonald, a young Scot mourning the deaths of his father and brothers in the massacre at Culloden Field. He and his mother embark on a dangerous journey to find a better life in the New World. But tragedy and unforeseen circumstance dog Jamie's path and he finds himself pressed into service aboard a pirate ship commanded by a ruthless Spaniard-a man with a past as dark as any on the wrong side of the law, but with an allure Jamie cannot resist. When he finally reaches the New World, Jamie is a changed man-one whose innocence has been replaced with a keen sense of self-preservation and a determination to survive-no matter what. Fighting to endure in the wilderness, he believes he has found his destiny as his life becomes irrevocably entwined with a Choctaw warrior-shaman-a man who had a vision of Jamie's coming. Together they fight the elements and those who seek to destroy them. The final battle will determine who will die and who will prevail.