Plot summary

It's the late nineteenth century in the Arizona Territory. John Russell was kidnapped by the Apaches when he was a child, they who raised him as Apache. Even after his biological father found him later in life and brought him home, Russell decided to return to life up in the mountains with the Apaches partly in having faced discrimination by the white community for now being a "savage". Russell learns that his biological father has just passed and has bequeathed to him his property in Sweet Mary, which has been used as a boarding house run by Jessie Brown. Not turning his back on his biological father this time, Russell decides to sell the house instead of taking Jessie up on her offer to continue it as boarding house, he needn't have even been there or lifted a hand while money went into his pocket. Shortly thereafter, Reverend Alex Favor, the aging Indian agent, and his proper younger wife Audra Favor are anxious to leave town, and with the stagecoach line having just shut down with the onset of the railroad, they, with Audra leading the transaction, decide to buy whatever required from the stagecoach company, including the rig - the only one available, a mud wagon - and the horses, to protect the company if the Favors decided to sue in the case of any issue, and hire the ethnic Mexican stagecoach manager Henry Mendez to be their driver. They, in turn, offer the other spots on the wagon to anyone wanting a ride. The other passengers are: Russell who is heading back to the Apaches; Jessie, who has no reason to stay after her male companion, Sheriff Frank Braden, refuses to marry her, he regarding his refusal as a favor to her; young married couple Billy Lee and Doris Blake, he who no longer has a job as he worked for the stagecoach company and she who hated life there anyway; and stranger Cicero Grimes, who seems as eager to be on that specific wagon as the Favors were to get out of town. Early on in their trip, the Reverend learns of Russell's Apache background, and using Mendez as his intermediary, quietly banishes Russell from the inside of the wagon, Russell instead to travel the rest of the way on top with Mendez. Things take a further turn when they discover the reason Grimes wanted so desperately to be on that specific wagon, his reason which threatens the lives of everyone else on board. Russell seems to have the best handle on what to do to get them out of this predicament, with the primary question being what the Favors will do with their specific goals and their view of Russell. Caught somewhat in the middle is Jessie, who cannot witness human suffering no matter what wrong said persons may have done up to this point in life.—Huggo