No name and no face, an unknown man comes to Fort Summer to heal, or bury, an old friend after the Civil War…and to hide away from society. Armed with an education and friends, the faceless man starts to build a remote empire, which is threatened by many (including an old enemy) who are all convinced that wealth is easily attainable in the Valley of the Ugly Man. The faceless man and his friend, aided by a captive girl taken from the Kiowa, a crippled former rebel, the daughter of a Mexican herder, and an old circuit rider preacher, build a future under Bald Mountain in New Mexico. A silent secretive wandering man they call simply Larado (so they can have something to put on his tombstone) joins them as they try to carve a home out of a harsh frontier—and to defend it against any who dare to try to take it from them.