For years, Caleb Marlowe has been following a hard trail. But fate finally seems to be smiling on him. The ranch he and his partner have been building is ready for a herd of longhorns, and a ghost from his troubled past is about to dance at the end of hangman's rope. With winter descending on the Colorado boom town of Elkhorn, Caleb's future looks bright.

But in the wild West, a man's fortune can turn with the speed of a mountain storm. When his partner is jailed for murder, his herd taken by rustlers, and his ranch nearly destroyed, Marlowe knows someone is trying to run him off. His nemesis, Elijah Starr, has been pardoned and hired by Judge Patterson—the local power broker—to build a railroad, and they are two men who will stop at nothing to get what they want.

Marlowe stands alone against a gang of hired killers. The stakes could not be higher, and the cards are stacked against him. A final shootout is coming, but in Elkhorn no one - especially Caleb Marlowe - goes down without a fight.