Special U.S. Deputy Page Murdock rides into Breen, Montana, on the trail of a menacing and elusive outlaw. But before he can scout the saloons for his man, he is made town marshal in a territory heating up for the ugliest range war this side of hell. The big ranchers want a gunslinger marshal, and the small ranchers have their own hired gun. But the badge on Murdock's chest means law, and he'll enforce it the best way he knows ... with a gun.--

A federal judge sends Deputy Marshall Page Murdoch after a corrupt sheriff who killed the judge's best friend. Murdoch is chosen because he is the most likely to bring back the sheriff dead, thus avoiding a complicated trial.

Posing as Brother Bernard Sebastian of the Church of Evangelical Truth, Page Murdock dons a clerical collar to worm his way into the confidence and good graces of the wary residents of Owen, Texas. Seems a gang of ruthless bandits is terrorizing the Texas panhandle, and all evidence points to the dusty cattle town as their base of operations. Murdock aims to unmask the gang, if he can pass himself off as a preacher long enough to get the drop on him....

In the spring of 1896, after thirty years spent dispensing justice in Montana, Judge Harlan Blackthorne expires, leaving Deputy U.S. Marshal Page Murdock, his most steadfast officer, to escort his remains across the continent by rail. The long journey is interrupted from time to time by station stops for the public to pay its respects, and for various marching bands to serenade the departed with his favorite ballad, "After the Ball." This gives Murdock...