Some men chose to live outside the law.

Matt Slaughter and his older brother joined the Confederacy only when war came to the Shenandoah Valley. But with the cause lost, they desert for home-only to find that swindlers have taken their farm. When his brother accidentally kills a Union officer, Matt takes the blame. Facing a sham trial and a noose, he escapes to the west, living as an outlaw who neither kills for pleasure nor steals for profit. But there are other men who are cold-blooded and have no such scruples...