After 27 years, Vietnam vet Aaron Hemingway still believed he was cursed by what he'd seen and done during the war. Ironically, the curse was that people he cared about had bad things happen to them in his presence. The latest was when his daughter, taken hostage by a murderer, watched as three men were killed during her rescue.
So Aaron became a recluse, avoiding the people he cared about in order to protect them. After three years of that, he was only a trigger squeeze away from permanently solving the problem. But an old friend tossed him a lifeline-- a temporary job as a small town deputy marshal. Knowing what was at risk, he nevertheless took the job.
Surprisingly, things seemed to be going well, including his handling of a couple of situations that were ripe for disaster. Then, in an unprovoked but not random attack, his dog was killed and his women friend was left in a coma with a gunshot wound to the head.
Aaron discovered the identity of the man behind the attack and, breaking a vow he made after Vietnam to never kill again, he swore vengeance. In the Malpais lava fields of western New Mexico, he laid the curse to rest.