Will Toal had been told his entire family had been killed at the close of the Civil War. Here he finds out that was not entirely true. He has a sister that not only survived but has moved to Nevada not far from his ranch. But his sister has traveled with a beau who is determined to start ranching in the middle of Nevada's open range. Across the west, large ranch owners had long standing permits to graze cattle on the same open stretches of public land available for homesteads. Those ranch owners let their cattle roam. Unbranded new calves, called mavericks, were collected only during spring roundups. However, homesteaders also collected these new foundlings viewed legally as "public property" in some states, yet the automatic property of stock growers associations in others. The combination of these competing legal and economic interests spanned the entire industry stoking the fires of anger, greed, politics, and the law. When his newly found sister finds herself threatened with the worst kind of violence, Will gets involved only to become a target himself. Wealthy ranch owners and hundreds of local townspeople square off. It takes the U.S. Military by order of the country's President to separate the combatants. After the legal system could not provide a resolution, Will is forced to re-establish the simple principles of right and wrong and end the Range War himself.