In 1862, the largest Indian uprising in American history occurred in southern Minnesota. Enraged Sioux attempted to throw off the broken treaties that still bound them and to avenge the insults and depredations they had been forced to bear. Hundreds of whites were killed. Women were taken captive.

Told from the point of view of Judith Raveling, a young woman widowed by the uprising, Scarlet Plume draws on the brutal history of the conflict from beginning to end. Taken captive by the Sioux she is given to Scarlet Plume, one of the many warriors who know their cause is lost. Caught between the men who would wage war ruthlessly and his own judgment, which tells him how dearly the Sioux will pay for every white killed, Scarlet Plume tries to save all he can. Through the dangers of a pitiless war he returns Judith to the safety of her people. Soon she must try to save him.

Scarlet Plume is the third of Frederick Manfred's five-volume series, the Buckskin Man Tales.