Scapegoat

Patrick Flint meets The River Wild

When his son is critically injured on a river trip, Patrick Flint finds himself in a race against time and a gang of outlaws who are determined the Flints won't make it out of Wyoming's Gros Ventre Wilderness alive.

Patrick Flint is looking forward to a week of fishing, hiking, canoeing, panning for gold, and camping on the Tukudika River with his family. It's a chance to redeem himself after the disastrous hunting trip he dragged them on the year before, as well as to observe big horn sheep in the wild, experience the land the Mountain Shoshone called their home, and show his parents, brother Pete, and sister-in-law Vera the wonders of the Bridger-Teton National Forest. However, when a dead body floats up before they've even pushed off, it's clear the trip is not off to an auspicious start.

Things quickly go from bad to worse. Pete and Vera surprise them with their seven young children, and Susanne is unable to convince Patrick to cancel or even scale back the wilderness adventure. Accident-prone patriarch Joe Flint is vocally unhappy with every element of the expedition. Sixteen-year-old Trish takes a wrong turn when walking her five-year-old cousin Bunny back to camp, and the two become hopelessly lost in the wilderness. Then thirteen-year old Perry Flint topples from a waterfall and sustains a severe head injury.

When Pete takes a short cut back to civilization to get help, he runs into outlaws who'd rather kill him than risk the location of their gold discovery being revealed. After Perry wakes from unconsciousness, Patrick is able to rescue Pete from the outlaws and get the family back to the river. But Joe must stay behind to search for his granddaughters, leaving the group short several experienced paddlers, with dangerous rapids ahead.

With the attacking outlaws gaining on them, the remaining party of twelve braves whitewater, wildlife, their fears about the missing girls, a deteriorating family dynamic, and the ever-present threat of Wyoming's mercurial weather in a race against time, as Perry's condition rapidly deteriorates before their eyes.