Fleeing the smallpox that kills his parents, Jack Parker, his sister Lula and their Grandfather encounter some very bad men on a river-crossing, ending with Jack alone and Lula carried off. His efforts to rescue his sister are bolstered by an unlikely pair of bounty-hunters and their hog, and he soon finds his faith and his set ideas tested by what he encounters on the trail.

It's Lansdale, so you know to expect the unexpected, but this is a marvelously palatable mix of Tom Sawyer and True Grit, pitching the compassionate against the mindlessly violent, with a little help from the more mindfully violent to keep them more or less alive and whole. It all leads down to a dense green wilderness hideaway and a brilliantly executed, utterly shambolic, bloody and chaotic shootout.