When Rebel Morgan was the law, Bodie, California had been a town of hope and promise. To quote the newspaper, Bodie was now "the wildest town in the west" and ex-sheriff Rebel was the whiskey-soaked town joke. A broken and bitter man since his wife's brutal murder, Rebel had been unwilling to stem the rising bloody tide of violence and corruption that now threatened to destroy Bodie. But Darby Buckingham is fiercely determined to whip Rebel back up to his former strength and to lend his own muscle to wipe out the town's savage criminals.