By 1884, a new type of fencing called barbed wire (or, as ranchers deemed it, devil wire) was making more enemies than good neighbors in the American West. Jim Hartford, a failed farmer from Tennessee, is an upstart in the town of Miles City, Montana. What he's looking for is a new beginning. But what he finds is a territorial disagreement that erupts in bloodshed. As a renegade group of fence-cutters--hired by the rich cattle baron Luther Guthrie--turn out to be a band of grudge-holding murderers, Jim Hartford must put his life on the line not only to avenge the death of his brother, but to save the woman he loves from the deadly barbs of hatred and greed.