This is the story of what a manhunt – with a lynching in prospect – does to the men in the posse, to the intended victim, and to the woman most vitally concerned – how some break under the tension and resort to gunfire, while others, tested to the limit of their endurance, achieve greatness of a sort. It is the story of how one young rancher, with the cards stacked against him, toppled the kingship of a ruthless cattle baron. It is also the story of the bitter fruit passed on by a father, too busy amassing riches to understand his weakling son.