Born and raised in Kentucky, young Sam Carson naturally takes to feuding after his pa is gunned down. An expert shot, Sam has no ambition to be a gunman, but he is not one to stand idly by when kin are killed. Carrying on after Pa's death, Sam plans to finance the family stable by racing their thoroughbreds in Lexington, the very city where the killer went to ground. Kentucky horse racing in the years before the Civil War belonged to local syndicates, and the gang that held Lexington were particularly vicious. When Sam refuses to throw a race, he learns honor comes at a price—the gang beats his hired hand, fires his barn, and steals the person most dear to him.