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Based on actual events, this is the epic tale of Abilene, Kansas, at the same time when the cowboy was king, might made right, and the near future felt as unsettled as the limitless prairie. Abilene, 1871. Will Merritt is fiercely defensive of the cattle trade that made his father's lot of money. Idolizing the cowboys who flood the roads each warmer summer months, Will and his friends are attracted to Abilene's exotic Texastown district-- a powderkeg of saloons and brothels so notorious that the mayor has appointed the West's most famous gunman, Wild Monthly bill Hickok, to police force its roads. Yet even with Hickok as marshal, Abilene comes with deep divisions. The townsfolk resent the migrant settlers whose new farms are slicing up the rangeland. And no one is more intolerant than Will's best ally, Jasper, who delights in tormenting any farmer he encounters. But Will finds himself torn when he matches the stunning and beguiling Anna, whose dignity and willpower test his deepest beliefs. Then Will's daddy reveals a stunning secret that challenges Abilene's future, the one that makes the Merritts outcasts. So when Crazy Bill's tenure as marshal comes to a violent brain, Will realizes that everything-- his family, his friends, and the only home he's ever known-- could be vanished in an instant, leaving only a clear wilderness once again.
