Thomas McNulty and John Cole, both orphaned teenagers, meet under a hedge in St. Louis during a rainstorm.

Saloon owner Titus Noone hires Thomas and John to dress as women and dance with miners in a frontier town.

Thomas and John, too old to pass as women, leave the saloon and enlist in the army.

The army attacks a Yurok village in California, killing women and children while local settlers celebrate.

Soldiers searching for a Sioux village discover 20 of their comrades dead, with only Caleb Booth alive.

Wellington's troops attack an Oglala Sioux village at dawn using a field gun, killing all the adult villagers.

John and Thomas leave the army, taking a young Sioux girl they call Winona with them as an adopted daughter.

Thomas and John perform a tender public love scene together in Noone's minstrel troupe in Grand Rapids.

Thomas and John are persuaded by free Black man Beulah McSweny to enlist in the Union army.

Captured in Tennessee, Thomas and John survive a brutal winter in a Confederate prisoner camp before being exchanged.

Thomas and John return to Michigan, where they are joyfully welcomed home by Winona and Noone's minstrel troupe.

Thomas and John marry in Michigan, with Thomas registered as Thomasina McNulty before a half-blind preacher.

Starling Carlton arrives at Lige's Tennessee farm with news that Caught-His-Horse-First has kidnapped Major Neale's family.

Thomas kills Starling Carlton when Starling threatens to murder Winona during the army's attack on a Sioux village.

Major Neale intervenes at Thomas's court martial and has her death sentence commuted to 100 days of hard labor.

Thomas McNulty and John Cole meet as orphaned teenagers in St. Louis and, after two years working as dancing girls in a frontier saloon, enlist in the army to fight in the American Indian Wars. They participate in brutal massacres of Native Americans before leaving the army and adopting a young Sioux girl named Winona as their daughter. The Civil War pulls them back into service, and after surviving a Confederate prisoner camp, they return home and legally marry. Years later, a violent confrontation at a Sioux village forces Thomas to kill a beloved comrade, and she escapes Fort Laramie in disguise only to face a military court martial. Her death sentence is ultimately commuted, and the novel ends with Thomas looking forward to returning home to her family in Tennessee.

The headline story of two soldiers who build a family and fight for survival.

Thomas McNulty's family perishes in the Irish famine, forcing a teenage Thomas to flee alone through Canada to America.

Thomas and John travel west with the army and join Shawnee guides for a buffalo hunt on the Great Plains.

Major Neale privately confesses anger at being sent to California over a stolen mule rather than any settler murders.

After the Yurok massacre, Major Neale orders graves dug and delivers a blessing over the bodies of the dead.

A catastrophic flood sweeps through the California army camp, drowning dozens of soldiers sheltering on rooftops and in trees.

The near-starving company encounters Oglala Sioux men who leave cooked food at a fire and retreat without violence.

Pearl is court-martialed and executed by firing squad for raping and murdering a Yurok woman during the village attack.

Thomas and John befriend three soldiers at Fort Laramie: Nathan Noland, Starling Carlton, and Lige Magan.

Major Neale returns to Fort Laramie from Boston with his new wife, who opens a school for the Sioux children.

Free Black man Beulah McSweny offers to teach Winona to read after local schools refuse her as a Sioux girl.

Lige Magan is stabbed in the neck during a Civil War night battle and receives an honorable discharge.

Confederate forces massacre the surrendering Black Union battalion after Thomas and John's company is taken prisoner.

Thomas, John, and Winona travel south to Tennessee, with Thomas wearing women's clothes for much of the journey.

Thomas, John, and Winona are ambushed by four armed men on the road, and Winona is shot but saved by a hidden gold coin.

Corporal Poulson writes to Thomas warning that John and Winona will become outlaws if Thomas does not surrender.

Thomas's story begins with personal tragedy, as the Irish famine claims his family and forces him to flee alone through Canada to America as a teenager. During his years as a soldier, Thomas and John witness and survive numerous hardships, including floods, near-starvation, and the execution of a comrade for rape, while forming deep friendships with men like Starling, Lige, and Nathan Noland. The family they build with Winona is tested by racism and violence on their journey south, including an ambush on the road to Tennessee in which Winona is nearly killed. The Civil War brings its own horrors, including the massacre of surrendering Black soldiers and the brutal conditions of a Confederate prison. These secondary events reveal the texture and true cost of Thomas and John's life together, filling in the human detail around the novel's major turning points.

The smaller moments and supporting events that shape Thomas's world.

Thomas first wears women's clothing at Noone's saloon and feels completely liberated, comparing the sensation to being freed.

The Treaty of Fort Laramie is signed, briefly promising safe emigrant passage through Native American lands.

Soldiers learn that Caught-His-Horse-First's men killed emigres who crossed onto land forbidden by the recent treaty.

Wellington mutilates the corpses of two dead Sioux after the soldiers discover where 20 of their comrades were killed.

Caught-His-Horse-First arrives at Fort Laramie to barter for his daughter, but Starling stabs him and Lige shoots the girl.

Wellington dies slowly of his illness, changing the mood and command structure at Fort Laramie.

Thomas asks Mrs. Neale for permission to take Winona away from the fort, presenting the girl as an apprentice servant.

Thomas begins wearing dresses at home in Grand Rapids, saying the women's clothing makes him feel easier.

The grasses catch fire during a Civil War battle, halting the shooting and creating a wordless truce between the armies.

Thomas and John receive a letter reporting that Lige Magan's father was hanged by his neighbors as a Union sympathizer.

Tach Petrie leads a violent armed attack on Lige's Tennessee farm, marking the end of the peaceful farming period.

Winona slips away from Lige's farm in the night with Starling, forcing a badly injured John to watch Thomas ride off alone.

Grief-stricken over his murdered wife and daughter, Major Neale orders his soldiers to destroy Caught-His-Horse-First's entire village.

While traveling back to Tennessee with Winona after escaping Fort Laramie, Thomas concludes firmly that she is a woman.

At Thomas's court martial, German translator Sarjohn identifies Thomas as the soldier who killed Starling Carlton.

From Thomas's first joyful experience wearing women's clothes to the brief peace of the Fort Laramie treaty, the novel tracks a series of pivotal moments that change everything that follows. Each confrontation — Starling's unprovoked attack on Caught-His-Horse-First, Wellington's death, Thomas quietly asking Mrs. Neale for custody of Winona — shifts the balance of power and sets new events irreversibly in motion. The Civil War brings its own turning points, from a grass fire that halts a battle to the devastating news that a friend's father has been executed by his own neighbors. When Winona disappears in the night and a grief-maddened Major orders the destruction of a Sioux village, Thomas is forced into a final choice that will define who she is. The pool ends at the court martial, where a witness's testimony seals Thomas's fate and forces the question of whether her sacrifice was worth making.

The key decisions, discoveries, and emotional shifts that drive the story forward.