The desert town of Raton, New Mexico, metes out justice swift and severe. When respected Marshal Dan Washburn is gunned down in cold blood, the townsfolk exact their own brand of revenge with a hangman's rope. But U.S. Marshal Ben Bryce thinks they hanged the wrong man, and he's the one lawman bold enough to stand up to the town and tough enough to go after the real killer-someone who has a score to settle with the whole Washburn can. Bryce has only one weakness: he's fallen in love with Dan Washburn's pretty young daughter. And now, as the buzzards circle, he alone stands between her and the bloodlust of a crazed killer.