A senseless killing stopped Jackson Farraday - scout, guide, man of the West - from investigating an odd situation in the raw mining settlement called Black Dog. For answers, he tricked Lilian Goodnight into spying at the High Meadows cattle ranch.Lil was dismayed to find range boss Liam O'Grady running a hatwire outfit crewed by deeper-dyed misfits than herself. Then she was obliged to save from renegade Indians ex-British Army major Albert Fitzcuthbert, an imperious agent of the investors who owned the High Meadows.Everybody had secrets: Lil's childhood friend Liam; his spouse Mary, who risked her honour in Black Dog and Fitzcuthbert's cruelly humiliated young wife, Cecilia. Meanwhile Lil was facing problems only her savvy, daring and guns could settle!