When four officers of the law are slaughtered in a bloody battle with two hillbilly rustlers, US Marshal Heck Thomas and his new deputy, Zeke, head for Indian Territory on their trail. At Fort Smith, Judge Parker is executing criminals, six at a time, and Heck decides that it is time to impose some rough justice of his own. Why, he wonders, does the notorious Belle Starr, with her clan of gun-crazy Cherokees, always escape the noose? Why does the Hanging Judge ride out to a lonesome cabin in the woods and what secret does he hide? Can the Marshal lure Belle and her boys into a trap? Carbines blaze and the body count spirals as Heck and Zeke put their lives on the line to find out.