When Mordecai Sapp turned up with a bullet wound in his head at the doorstep of lawman and medical man Santiago Toole, he only wanted doctoring. But it didn't take Toole long to figure out that Sapp's brothel had been burned to the ground and its staff of prostitutes and bartenders murdered. Only Sapp escaped.

Although the denizens of Sapp's were hardly respected citizens, murder is murder, and Sheriff Toole set out to investigate. Sergeant Major Wiltz at Fort Keogh warned him to stay away or the army would put him away. But some sheriffs just don't scare - or die - that easily . . .