Killing time in his garden outside Fort Smith, Arkansas, retired US Marshal Doyle Hardy has softened up some. The brutal double murder in Shacktown shapes him up fast. Suddenly, redeputized, he follows a trail that snakes from owlhoot whorehouses to moonshine shacks, dogged by vicious outlaws with old scores to settle. Riding the treacherous Choctaw Trail he is sworn to ferret out the heartless killer, the hell-raiser who will force him to face the hardest truth and make the toughest choices. Doyle Hardy will face death itself to bring one man to hanging justice: Bud Hardy, his son.