Uses family journals, newspaper accounts and interviews with historians and descendants of the party to recreate the drama of the ill-fated 1846 expedition to California in which the travellers were trapped by snow and forced into cannibalism to survive.

Lucas Jackson is a man who refuses to be nailed down, conform to rules and regulations, or fit into society, and now, he's on a chain gang. He's a likable enough guy, always smiling, always ready for a little fun. He eats 50 hard-boiled eggs on a bet and collects all the money in the camp. He's more or less like the people he hangs around with, except he won't be pushed. He knows his own mind. This makes him the only prisoner with guts enough to talk...