There is no knowing what lies in a man's heart. On a trip to buy ponies,Frank Ross is killed by one of his own workers. Tom Chaney shoots him downin the street for a horse, $150 cash, and two Californian gold pieces.Ross's unusually mature and single-minded fourteen-year-old daughter Mattietravels to claim his body, and finds that the authorities are doing nothingto find Chaney. Then she hears of Rooster - a man, she's told, who has grit- and convinces him to join her in a quest into dark, dangerous Indianterritory to hunt Chaney down and avenge her father's murder.