Chad Walters, tall and strong, half Indian and half white man, returns to the wild Chekow Country river basin to claim one hundred acres of land left to him by his father and finds that the land has been settled by a family of farming people, member of the poor and illiterate group called "gumbo rats". Chad succeeds in recovering his land from Lance Boone and his three stalwart sons, but in doing so he becomes the most hated man in the region. His marriage to Boone's only daughter, Emma, heightens the conflict.

     This is the story of that marriage and of two people who, each sensitive and strong-willed, depend on each other for nearly all human companionship. Their love is strong but travels an uneasy path through Emma's lonely separati9on from her family and, later on, the traumatic experience of the birth of a stillborn child. Yet there are bright times of happiness and harmony, there is the shared devotion to their home and their land, and there is Chad's steadfast, gentle heart which Emma, young, rebellious, searching, learns to trust.Then tragedy strikes, threatening the whole structure of the life which Chad has built. How he meets it is a revelation of unselfish love and of the courage of that sort of man who can be called by his fellows "a man to ride with."

     Vivid character portrayal, a sense of the foreboding atmosphere of the river basin and restrained but continuously felt dramatic quality, make this forceful novel.