In 1870, after three years of peace, General Tracy Cameron is given a congressional mission to look into allowing the Comanches to remain on their land. Problem is other generals are intent on subverting Cameron's mission by provoking the Comanches into a war.

"With his run out of luck, Dan Canby had to be rough, tough and ruthless. When the Cival War ended in Texas, his trouble had only begun. Dan had to fight for his store, his stageline, everything he had ever worked for. He had to fight for the woman he wanted--- he even had to fight for his life. And there were lots of folks in town just willing him to lose ... to save Dan and to save the town it took an ex Yankee soldier. Soft-spoken Ben Talon, who...

. . . Be on the Houston and Texas Central, westbound. Please bring your savings. I want to makthis venture profitable. Bring a friend too. You wont be able to handle this alone.Sergeant Finley Burkhauser was a man who called every hand, bluff or not. And this telegram was no bluff. He knew just the friend he would bring, too fellow Texas Ranger Jim McClintock. There had been a rash of hold-ups on the Liberty-Houston Express but this latest communication...

The fort was cut off and surrounded by Apaches. Two patrols had been wiped out, a third was missing, and the telegraph was down. Inside Fort Starke, men and women waited for inevitable death ... There was Lt. Col. Lunsford, torn by the conflicting loyalties of family and duty, and Cora, his wife, thinking only of her children. Mel Lunsford, the Colonel's oldest son, who was young enough to be eager for the fight, but old enough to be scared stiff....

Lieutenant Linus McCaffey, a newlywed young soldier assigned to rebuild the army post in Tucson, soon learns there will would be no future for anyone in town as long as the corrupt Gannon brothers were in charge.