The 19th century saw the births, the very painful births, of both the Mexican and the Texas Republics. The origin of the two came at the price of a treasure of blood spilled, losses suffered and dreams crushed. In the case of the former, it also entailed deceit, subterfuge and a woeful amount of treachery. In the case of the latter, it involved a sanguinary war and summary mass executions by the powerful Mexican Army.

This is the expansive tale of three families, two Mexican and one Texan, their struggles against savage Indians, between staunch idealists and brutal cynics and the societies that engendered them. It is also about the perils of a rigidly hierarchical social system and the Scots-Irish bounty of individual initiative that propelled the westward expansion of the United States.

It chronicles the necessary compromises and heartbreaking sacrifices that all of these characteristics—of individuals and whole societies—unfailingly entail.