Two outlaws kill their lawman escort in Favor's camp, saddling the trail boss with the responsibility of bringing them in for trial.
Rowdy's wartime friend, they spent time in a POW camp, is getting married. The bride's stepbrother, a murderer sixteen times over, has returned to claim his share of the family fortune.
A stage load of passengers being chased by the man with the black satchel wrecks. Favor takes them to his camp. The man is a hired executioner after someone from the stage or the herd.
Rowdy tries to help Clovis leave her sheriff husband.
The drive trapped by high water is approached by a Colonel and lady looking for men to join his Confederacy of Panama. Fearing his men will leave, Favor tries to cross, losing a man. The men leave not realizing what the Colonel's plans are.
Gil Favor gets permission from rancher Jed Reston to drive his herd over Reston's land. He discovers, however, that Reston has a bigoted attitude toward Indians, particularly a local Comanche named Taslatch who wants to be a farmer and who's paid for a mail-order plow. (Reston's recently had his son, Matt, give Taslatch 15 lashes on a trumped-up rustling charge.) Favor earns Reston's enmity by siding with Taslatch. Tensions soon escalate until violence is set to erupt between the Comanches and local townspeople and Favor must take decisive steps to intervene.
