The year is 1810 and the Astor Company is planning an expedition to the Columbia River. Whiskey producer George Murdock of St. Louis is invited to go along. He and his wife Molly go to the rendezvous point where Molly is raped by a drunken Arikara Indian. Husband George cannot cope with the fact and Molly divorces him. She already has Joey, her three year old son, and the two of them move into a cabin to await the birth of the child that is on the way. St. Louis is a frontier town with less than ten thousand inhabitants and life there is touch and go. Molly's married sister Sarah moves from her home in Cincinnati to be near Molly. They face the hardships of the frontier together as the Missouri Territory moves toward statehood. This is a story of Indians, horses, battles, whiskey, romance and intrigue on the frontier that was purchased by President Thomas Jefferson seven years previous.