The Song of Three Friends is one of five epic poems in Neihardt's, "Cycle of the West". In eight cantos it tells the tale of three friends, Mike Fink, Will Carpenter and Frank Talbeau, who travel up the Missouri River in 1822 as members of Ashley's Hundred to seek their fortunes in the fur fields of the Rocky Mountains. The friends fall out over the love of a woman with fatal consequences. The Song of Three Friends won “Best Volume of Verse” from the Poetry Society of America shortly after it was published.. - Summary by Fritz