In the spring of 1846, a group of families left Illinois and began the long journey to California. To save time, they took an ill-advised shortcut─with disastrous consequences.

Bad weather, bad choices, and just plain bad luck forced the pioneers to spend a long, cold winter in the mountains, slowly starving. What they did to stay alive and the lengths that others went in order to rescue them make this one of the most tragic and infamous stories of the American frontier.