In 1820, the aging but feisty fighter recalls growing up in North Carolina, and feeling the wanderlust that kept him moving after he married. Daniel is drawn to the wilderness, where his wife Rebecca urges him to follow his dream, and after two years in Kentucky he gets hired to arrange for its purchase from the Indians. Hard times follow, including the death of a son, war with England, a daring escape from a Shawnee tribe and the dramatic siege of the settlers, but at last he and Becky are reunited.