Walk the Shadow Trail

To Walk the Shadow Trail means to lead a life of pain and sorrow, to be deprived and alone forever? Baron Karl Augustus Dietrich Wilhelm von Brandt was no different from any other fugitive from justice, although he was fleeing his father's crimes in Germany and not his own. Young, inexperienced and a foreigner, he is easily swindled when he buys a Nebraska ranch which is little more than a sand dune. At this point, Johnny Moon, a half-Pawnee cowboy, takes pity on the young nobleman and comes to Will's aid. Soon, Johnny has Will looking and speaking like a Nebraskan, and working together, the impoverished German noble and the half-breed ne'er-do-well transform Will's property into a thriving ranch. Through tough times, like the death of Will's fiancée, as well as the good, Johnny Moon is there as Will's foreman and his right-hand, closer than a friend and trusted like a brother. But when Will marries Silent Summer Woman, the headstrong daughter of a local Pawnee chief, the first wedge of distrust is driven between the two men. Relegated to the background by Summer's apparent hatred of him, Johnny accepts her dislike with good grace, and when Will's son, Shadow, is born, becomes a surrogate uncle to the little boy, transferring the friendship he feels for Will to the child. What Will can't know is that his friend is harboring a terrible secret and if it is ever discovered, it will not only destroy their friendship forever but quite possibly their lives as well.