Many accounts exist of the historic expedition led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark across the North American continent. The records and journals of the dramatic journey are full of what Sergeant Patrick Gass, in his journal entry of April 5, 1805, called "useful information". But author Rita Cleary offers the story from a different point of view: through the eyes of John Collins, who is persuaded to join the expedition by his friend, Georges Drouillard, a hunter who will supply meat for the voyagers.