Riding into Willow Springs, Texas, Jefferson Davis King trails a horse behind him intended as a gift for his friend C. D. Hollis. But Sheriff Hollis isn't around to collect--he'd been killed with a shotgun blast weeks earlier by an unknown gunman. Suspects include the town's cunning judge, a hotheaded new Sheriff, and the rancher Dallas Castleberry. All of them are feuding for a piece of the rich, unsettled land across the railroad tracks. They all wanted Hollis dead, and none of them are talking. A loose-lipped gravedigger tells all he knows to J. D., who then sets off on a dangerous manhunt. He knows the killer is somewhere in plain sight, hidden behind a friendly face.