Deputy US Marshal Cal Burnett rides into Pike's Peak, Kansas, after an absence of ten years, expecting to find the town as he had left it. Any hopes of this are quickly destroyed, though. Strange and disturbing rumours reach him: his brother, Lance, has disappeared, and people say he robbed the local bank before skipping town. Cal begins to investigate, but it's when he meets the local law - Sheriff Snark and his deputy Rufus Hoyle - that his troubles really begin...
