After surviving a shooting in Taylorsville, and the 1876 influenza outbreak, Marshal Joe Mundy is enjoying the summer courting Sarah, the abandoned wife of the town's first marshal, George Welby. Until the killings begin. The cattlemen's association has threatened to campaign against Sheriff Canfield in the upcoming election unless he curtails the area's rustling problem. Bitter and unforgiving, Canfield's secret solution is a hired assassin, a convenient way to eliminate those in his way, along with the rustlers. The plan goes awry when a young, local cowhand is killed and Mundy is expected to stop the killer. In this second installment of the Joe Mundy series, his life is further complicated when after a long absence, George Welby returns to his wife, Sarah, and runs for sheriff.