A vicious killer stalks the dusty streets of Mascarada, New Mexico, slicing the throats of saloon girls like some Western Day Jack the Ripper. The Crucible Society, an organization that claims it doesn't exist, plans to tame the Wild West, but are their methods any better than those of the criminals they hunt down? Johnny Hickok, a man falsely accused of murder, struggles against the demons of his past and the specter of the Pistolero within. After the Crucible Society offers him a pardon in exchange for bringing the ripper to justice, he soon finds himself entangled in a web of hidden motives, danger and deception. Can he face the ghosts awaiting him on the blood-stained trail that leads straight to the woman he left behind and vanquish the Janus tearing apart his soul? Or will he fall prey to an adversary as deadly as any the West has ever known?