Living in a remote part of Wyoming in the late nineteenth century, Jason McCord learns everything from his Quaker mother and his bounty hunter father who are his entire world. So when he comes home one day and finds both his parents murdered, he elects to return to the family and friends he knew from the first twelve years of his life in Texas. As Jason begins his journey, his father's words haunt him: "You can never go back home. Things change or you will change." Jason does not have to wait long for those changes to become evident. Challenged to a duel early in his travels, Jason kills a man in self-defense. Then, when he comes upon five dead men at a stagecoach station, Jason takes a strong box he finds on the scene that is filled with cash and gold bars. Jason enters into a partnership with a widow for a cattle ranch, but craving more excitement he embarks upon a career in law enforcement and becomes a United States Deputy Marshall. Jason's duties in law enforcement provide many trials and even bring him face-to-face with his parents' killer. While Jason discovers his investigative instincts, he finds his ties to family may be even stronger.