Gunfighter Cort Packet rides into the town of Scarlet intending to kill Yucca Frazel, but many try to prevent him: Frazel's employer rancher Addison Blackwell, an Indian agent cheating Apaches out of goods, a gunfighter rumoured to have murdered the marshal's husband, and the marshal herself — Rebecca Rogers, trying to find the truth about her husband's death, forced into being marshal in a fixed election by the powerful rancher who professes warm feelings for her. But are the feelings for her, or are they for the riches on her land? Before Cort can finish his business with Yucca Frazel, he finds himself caught up in killings, treachery, stealing and politics that threaten to leave him lying dead.
