Where the river runs

the long version

In the warm months of 1849, twelve men leave Fort Leavenworth on a peace expedition to the far-flung Indian nations. Led by Captain Jedediah Owen, they take the American Fur Company steamboat up the Missouri River and vanish into the wilderness. Months pass, but finally the army asks Jean Gallant, American Fur's finest scout, to search for the missing party. He follows many tangled leads, but his inconclusive findings lead the army to believe that the members of the peace party are dead. After all, a cholera epidemic is rampant and the winter has been unusually harsh. But Captain Owen's strong-minded fiancee, Susannah Saint George, refuses to believe that he's dead. Come spring, she'll hire Gallant to lead her across the thawing plains to find the man who left her with words, "Where the river runs, there will I be."