The Bucket of Blood Saloon is robbed, but the kind of hard cases that terrorize 1870s Dakota Territory don't stop there: the owner is murdered and one of his upstairs girls is abducted. Tucker Ashley is back in action.

This time, he got himself talked into tracking for the posse—but only because the kidnapped girl is his best friend's fiancée. Tucker's own fiancée threatens to call off their impending wedding if he leaves town, but nonetheless, off he rides. Tucker leads the pathetic posse—made up of a couple of cattle rustlers, a gambler, and a blacksmith nearly too large to sit on a horse—in pursuit of outlaws so brutal that even the Army turned around rather than confront Justice Cauther and his gang.

The posse will be no help either—when Tucker most desperately needs any help he can get after his horses are stolen, his men are shot, and his best friend is taken captive. Between the outlaws, the Indians, and the Army, Tucker is beaten, ambushed, and left for dead in the harsh Dakota winter. Finally, at the edge of his own reason, Tucker finds himself face-to-face with the ringleader of the gang that started it all—and one of them must end it here and now.