When a planned bank robbery in Drystone City results in the death of the owner's wife, Cage turns his back on lawlessness and heads home. But when he arrives in the border town of Nathan's Ford, he has been followed by his nemesis and rides into tragedy. With his family's ranch burned to the ground, and his parents and brother murdered by Mexican rustlers, Cage — aided by childhood friend Velvet Goodwine and reluctant bank owner Milton Guthrie — sets off in pursuit of the killers. A confrontation with the rustlers leads to the unmasking of the man behind the deaths, and a bloody finale which leaves Cage fighting desperately for his life, and the lives of the only friends he has left.