Having hunted down notorious outlaw Frank Cuskin, Marshal Abe Ryan's problems are only just beginning. Lack of sleep, the desert, Indians, Cuskin's polecat kin, thirst and exhaustion make it ever more likely that Ryan's mission will end in failure. When Cuskin gets the upper hand and leaves him for dead, a lesser man than Ryan would have abandoned the task. But Ryan is not a lesser man, and he will use every weapon in his arsenal to deliver the killer to the gallows ...