Jake Bonny, orphaned since a tender age, had spent his childhood and early years living and laboring on his uncle's barge. The tedious life on the vessel and the Arkansas River came to be Jake's entire existence until, one day, he broke free of his kinsman's domineering hold over him.

Travelling by foot, he made his way westward until arriving in Tombstone. By chance, he stepped into the role of an unofficial assistant to the town's elderly town marshal.

As time passed, he befriended an affable identity of the district, but this happy-go-lucky sidekick was backshot and gunned down while walking the streets. From that moment onwards, Jake spent his days seeking those responsible; to wreak his vengeance upon them. But hard-case outlaws, brought in from the Indian Territories, by a corrupt businessman, stood in his way.

Cattle rustling and the smuggling of alcohol, to and from south of the border, by longriders among the willows make for a perilous existence for under-manned lawmen, added to his perils.