'Mercenary, ' 'Gun for hire, ' and 'Most dangerous man in Montana' were the saloon and barber shop rumors about Virgil Creede, but the real man, whom they didn't know, lived by a personal code with very high standards. Anyone bent on harming women or families went against that code, and for that reason Dora Pickett sought him out. Merciless Chicago underworld boss Jerome Pickett had set up business in gold-rich Helena, Montana dealing in money and murder. When he targets his own son for execution, Dora asks Virgil to help her innocent brother and his family escape their father's retaliation. He accepted the job. As Jerome Pickett learned, Montana wasn't Chicago, and Creede didn't play by Chicago rules, he made up his own. When Dora joins forces with Virgil to buck the tiger against a vicious crime syndicate she comes to understand that there is much more to the mysterious Virgil Creede than a gun.