Captain Kidd performs a news reading in Wichita Falls and spots his old acquaintance Britt Johnson in the crowd.

Britt Johnson asks Captain Kidd to take young Johanna Leonberger safely to her aunt and uncle in southern Texas.

The Captain reluctantly accepts responsibility for Johanna and receives the fifty-dollar gold coin and Britt's own pistol.

Captain Kidd and Johanna leave Wichita Falls in the newly bought wagon, watched from the shadows by Almay and his men.

The Captain and Johanna make a rough river crossing that cracks a wagon wheel badly in need of repair.

Johanna runs to a rock and tries to attract a Kiowa group across the flooded river; a warrior fires a warning shot.

After a reading in Dallas, Almay corners the Captain and offers to buy Johanna, making clear he intends to prostitute her.

The Captain flees Dallas that same night on an alternate road to keep Almay from easily tracking them south.

Almay and his two Caddo companions ambush the Captain and Johanna with rifles at a ravine near Carlyle Springs.

During the siege, Johanna devises the plan to load shotgun shells with dimes from the fare can as improvised buckshot.

The Captain uses the dime-loaded shotgun to kill Almay; his two Caddo companions immediately flee the fight.

The Captain delivers Johanna to the Leonberger farm, where Wilhelm coldly asks for a receipt before anything else.

Adolph, a German neighbor, privately warns the Captain that he cannot in good conscience leave Johanna with the Leonbergers.

Returning to the Leonberger farm, the Captain finds Johanna bearing whip marks and tells her to drop everything and leave with him.

Johanna grows up, marries John Calley, and builds a full life; the Captain dies requesting burial with his runner's medal.

Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, a 72-year-old traveling news reader in post-war Texas, is persuaded by his acquaintance Britt Johnson to escort a young returned captive named Johanna Leonberger safely to her relatives near San Antonio. Their journey is shadowed from the start by a criminal named Almay, who eventually ambushes them in a ravine, forcing the Captain and Johanna to fight for their lives using improvised dime-filled shotgun shells. Surviving the ambush binds the two together, and the further they travel the harder their coming separation becomes. After dutifully delivering Johanna to her cold, abusive relatives, the Captain cannot ignore the signs of mistreatment and returns to take her away. Johanna leaps a fence to rejoin him, and the two spend several more years traveling together before she marries and the Captain ends his days requesting to be buried with his runner's medal.

The journey's headline moments, from first meeting to final farewell.

Britt Johnson warns the Captain that children who have lived among the Indians are permanently changed when returned to white society.

The Captain purchases a second-hand wagon with the words 'Curative Waters East Mineral Springs Texas' painted across its side.

In a flashback, the young Captain discovers deep satisfaction as a military messenger running dispatches during the War of 1812.

In a flashback, the Captain recalls opening his own printing press in San Antonio and meeting his future wife, Maria.

Early on the road, the Captain spreads out his firearms and supplies to signal to Johanna that they are on the same side.

A US Cavalry patrol stops the Captain near Spanish Fort; he shows Johanna's papers while she hides the revolver beneath blankets.

Because the Captain refuses to hand Johanna over to the soldiers, she willingly climbs up and sits beside him on the wagon bench.

In Spanish Fort, an Irish woman named Doris offers to take Johanna in permanently; the Captain declines, citing his promise to deliver her.

The Captain reads news about the Franco-Prussian War and Dr. Schliemann's search for ancient Troy to a crowd at the Masonic Lodge.

The Captain pays Mrs. Gannet to stay overnight with Johanna; Johanna signs 'poison' to the Captain when offered the woman's divinity fudge.

The Captain writes a letter to his daughters Elizabeth and Olympia urging them to leave Georgia and move to Texas.

A violent political brawl erupts among the audience during the Captain's reading at the Durand mercantile store, scattering his dimes.

Johanna secretly takes the stave mill owner's two pet chickens from their pen and cooks them for breakfast.

The Merritt brothers ride out to warn the Captain and Johanna about the dangerous and unpredictable Horrell brothers waiting in Lampasas.

The Captain's two daughters and son-in-law move to San Antonio, where the son-in-law opens a printing press with the Captain's help.

Behind the headline events lie the smaller but essential moments that define Captain Kidd's character and deepen his bond with Johanna. A flashback to his youth reveals how the Captain found his life's calling as a military messenger, laying the foundation for his identity as a man who delivers information across vast distances. Along the road, encounters with soldiers, a fiddler named Simon, an Irish woman named Doris, and a capable Dallas widow named Mrs. Gannet each test and reveal the Captain's patience and quiet resourcefulness. Political tensions explode during the Durand reading, and Johanna's unfamiliarity with the concept of property leads to a chicken theft that the Captain feels honor-bound to repay. The pool closes with the Captain's daughters finally making their home in San Antonio, completing the family reunion the Captain had long hoped for.

The road's quieter moments, from backstory to brawls and stolen chickens.

At the Wichita Falls reading, the Captain spots Almay lurking at the back and recognizes him as a man of dangerous reputation.

Johanna recoils in alarm when the Captain points at her to teach her her name, fearing he is using Kiowa evil magic.

Johanna surprises the Captain mid-journey by suddenly revealing in German that her mother and father are dead.

The Captain locks Johanna alone in a Dallas hotel room, where she immediately begins Kiowa chanting and banging the walls.

After Almay demands to buy Johanna, the Captain stalls with a false promise to negotiate the next morning, then prepares to flee immediately.

On the dark road south of Dallas, Johanna suddenly cries out a Kiowa death omen at lights burning in a distant farmhouse window.

During the ambush, Johanna ties up her dress, pries a large boulder loose, and sends it crashing down toward the armed attackers.

With ammunition running low, Johanna refuses the Captain's urging to escape alone on horseback and stays at his side.

After Almay falls dead, Johanna picks up a knife to scalp the body and the Captain physically stops her, calling it very impolite.

The Captain sends coins with a passing elderly woman on the road to repay the stave mill owner for Johanna's stolen chickens.

While riding alongside the wagon, the Captain realizes his birthday passed unnoticed and he has quietly turned 72 years old.

A group of Kiowa silently drop from a tree near an abandoned farmhouse; Johanna places her hand on the Captain's arm and stays silent.

Johanna's English and confidence have grown enough that she collects dimes at a Fredericksburg reading, shouting 'Achtung' at anyone who tries to slip past.

As they near Castroville, Johanna cries while the Captain firmly tells her it would be dishonorable not to deliver her to her relatives.

On the eve of her wedding, Johanna tells the Captain he has been her 'curative waters,' echoing the wagon they traveled in together.

This pool traces the decisive moments and quiet revelations that accumulate into the story's emotional core. From the Captain first clocking Almay as a threat in Wichita Falls to Johanna's fearful misreading of a simple naming gesture, small observations carry enormous weight across the journey. The tense confrontation with Almay in Dallas, Johanna's death-omen cry in the dark, her raw courage during the ravine battle, and the Captain's gentle prevention of a scalping all reveal the moral and emotional stakes the two characters share. As the journey nears its end, Johanna's growing English skills and the Captain's deepening attachment make their approaching separation feel almost unbearable. The pool closes with a tender farewell that brings the story's central symbol full circle, as Johanna tells the Captain he has been her curative waters all along.

The pivotal decisions, discoveries, and emotional shifts that quietly steer everything.