Two young men come to the forbidding desert at the foot of Black Mesa. Paul Manning, a would-be writer from Kansas City, is running from memories that haunt him. Wess Kintell, a tall, gray-eyed Texan, is hiding from his shady past. Together, they decide to start a cattle ranch at Black Mesa, but a ruthless trader and some wild women enter their lives and threaten their plans. Before it's over, everyone will learn a hard lesson about living, loving, and dying at Black Mesa.