The summer warpath began in late spring of 1876 under the command of General George Crook. Among other officers under Crook’s command was the daring and resourceful Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and the 7th Cavalry. The campaign’s purpose was to round up the wild tribes of the Cheyenne and Sioux and place them on reservations. This is the story of three men involved in this campaign.
Walt Staley, a drifter who works only long enough to get enough money to be traveling again, has fallen in love with Tally, the daughter of a white man and his Cheyenne wife. Tally’s brothers have chosen the Indian way of life and plan to join the Cheyenne on the warpath against white settlers. They have promised Tally to a Cheyenne war chief. Tally begs Walt Staley to take her with him, but the best he can do is promise to come back for her. He then rides to Fort Laramie where he enlists as an Army scout under General Crook. Roving Indians force Staley to stop at an Army hay camp where he meets Dave Allison. The two become friends, especially after Allison is transferred to active service under General Crook.
Finally there is Patrick O'Hara, a reporter for the Chicago Herald. He wants most of all to be attached to Custer’s regiment, believing that is where the action will be, but his editor sends him instead to be attached to General Crook’s expeditionary force. The events that occur will change the lives of these three men forever.