Even before the Civil War, a number of slaves escaped bondage and sought sanctuary in the American West. This includes the narrator of Storm Riders, who becomes enmeshed in the life of Waco Joseph Callahan, a.k.a. Brother Wolf, a.k.a. the Comanche Kid. Both the narrator and Waco are born of mixed parentage, which creates a bond between them. When Waco's brothers set out to kill him, they initiate a series of events that climaxes in a full-blown range war fought by renegade Comanches, Waco, and the narrator on one side and Waco's brothers on the other.