Young Andy Pickard, known among the Comanches as Badger Boy, is now a teenager, and has been learning to live with the Texans from whom he was stolen years before. His divided loyalties between the Comanches and the whites lead to another kidnapping. Five-year-old Billy Gifford is taken by a warrior named Fights With Bears. Andy must save his honor by trying to recover Billy. Rusty Shannon must defend his home against men who hold a grudge from the Civil War, and can do anything to him while hiding behind the badge of the State Police, as Texas suffers the pain of Reconstruction. Lives hang in the balance as people on both sides of the conflict learn something about the devious Way of the Coyote.