Mormon elders in the town of Cottonwoods pressure the widow Jane Withersteen to remarry so that her lands and herds will remain in their control. Gradually they frighten away most of her cowboys, and rustlers steal away her cattle, but the gunfighter Lassiter stands by her as the inevitable confrontation draws near.

Riding through the Wyoming Territory, Daniel Veach was surprised to find a small cabin tucked away in a gorge and even more surprised when lovely Anne Waring asked him in for tea. She and her husband, John, who seemed a bit out of place in the wilderness, invited Veach to stay the night. He happily accepted in the face of a gathering storm. Then two strangers arrived, and suddenly, it became clear that they had no intention of leaving empty-handed....

A fractious herd of bawling cattle at his side, a gang of rustlers and killers in front of him, and a death-jammed gun at his back -- this was Rusty Shotridge's life. But even when the young trail boss sliced his way through to Dodge City, his job was not over. For now he had to find the men who had killed his foreman, rustled his herd, and robbed his 'punchers. And there, west of Raton Pass, he found them -- waiting in ambush, their death trap ready...

New York Times and Publishers Weekly best-selling author Robert Vaughan has received a Pulitzer Prize nomination and a Spur Award for his stories set in the Wild West. The day after their welcoming dinner in Blodgett, Texas, Lucy Goodnight's husband Phil, a bank manager, vanishes, and the bank is robbed. Lucy's only hope is to turn to her grandfathers, legendary lawmen John Carmack and Charley Dawson, to find Phil and clear his name.