When range detective Rance Dehner kills outlaw Tully Brooks, he finds that the case will not be closed so easily. Before dying, Brooks tells Dehner that he was involved in a fake bank robbery in which no money was stolen. An innocent man has been arrested for the hold up, and Brooks wants Dehner to investigate. Dehner's compliance with a dying man's request sends him to Hard Stone, Colorado, where the fake robbery took place. This preposterous mining town is layered in mystery and violence; Dehner must deal with a high-stakes gambler, a mining engineer who's always quick to draw his gun, and a mysterious assailant who seems determined to ambush and kill the detective. With enemies all around him, can Dehner get to the bottom of this before it's too late?