In the spring of 1771, John MacKenzie arrives in British-ruled St. Augustine after a year of fur trapping. He is quickly drawn into an adventure that involves defending a young woman indentured to the powerful and treacherous James Tyrone. MacKenzie and Becky Campbell set out across the untamed Florida wilderness, accompanied by a crusty sailor named Blackpool Bobby and Jeremiah, a black slave-hunter. They are pursued by Tyrone’s murderous trackers toward buried gold and a showdown on the windswept sands of the Florida Gulf coast.