Gideon Pierce returned to Liberty to stop Lloyd Mitchell reaching the apparition in the sky, but in a town controlled by Lloyd and his seemingly invincible guards his chances appear remote.

His best hope is to free Lloyd's prisoner, a woman who is defying Lloyd and who might know of a way to defeat him, but when Gideon's rescue attempt goes awry, his hopes are dashed.

He needs a new plan, and he reckons the answer might just lie with the mysterious statue buried in a grave on Boot Hill. When Gideon reaches it, what he discovers there will only add to his problems as it would seem that all along he has been fighting a battle he has already lost.