None of us get to choose the circumstances of our birth. Conor O'Farrell was born in mid-Atlantic, on a coffin ship, his parents fleeing the Irish potato famine. In that sense he was lucky, where millions were not. His father taught him to be proud of his new American roots. When the Civil War started his father said it was his duty to volunteer; the family owed their new country. Conor was16, swept along on the tide of history like so many others, in a nation struggling to find its identity. In his determination to survive he did things few men could boast about. But survival was paramount; nobility had to catch up. This epic of one such life takes in the sweep of a crucial and colourful period in the American West, meeting historical characters along the way. What he lived through made him what he was - patriot, soldier, gunfighter, buffalo hunter, outlaw, lover, movie star - but always... a fugitive.