The year of 1877 finds Emmitt McGowan traveling to Austin Texas for a meeting with the Governor on behalf of his employer The North West Cattle Coalition. In route he finds himself and his partner, Ben Maxwell, reluctantly drafted by the association of ranchers located around Round Rock, Texas; to stop a local ranch owner suspected of stealing their cattle. They are quickly caught up in a tangled web of cattle rustling and murders on an unbelievable grand scale with a range war looming in the near future if they do not bring a end to the thieving quickly. Emmitt McGowan, using his wits and help from the Texas Rangers to solve the case, desperately tries to protect the woman he loves, his partner and himself from the rustlers as he encounters other various desperate characters, bank bandits and a notorious gunman whom actually lived in this period of time. A rousing tale in a time of Texas history not well known, about the brave men who defended the growing cattle industry from bandits.