6John Carshalton, late of the British army, returns to the town of Arabella in Kansas to take up a new job as sheriff. It's a peaceful life - until he gets word of outlaw gangs terrorizing settlements along the Kansas-Missouri border. When John is asked by an army officer to pose as a deserter and try to infiltrate whatever kind of force is being raised, he agrees - but is soon caught up in a web of violence and intrigue that threatens to destroy him, and everything he holds dear...