Rafter Crossing's cattlemen swore they would close the mines that were poisoning the range, and the miners were stealing the high-grade ore that rightfully belonged to Laine Tennison. Laine hired Mike Shevlin to get her ore back, but Shevlin had an old debt he wanted to pay in lead--not gold.
The story was that Eli Patterson had died in a gunfight, but Mike Shevlin knew it couldn't be true: the man who'd been like a father to him had been a Quaker. But when Shevlin rides back to Rafter Crossing to uncover the truth, he finds that the quiet ranching community has become a booming mining town. Newfound wealth has not made Rafter a peaceful place, however, and the smell of fear and greed is thick in the air. As Mike Shevlin tries to unravel the mystery of Patterson's death, he is led deeper and deeper into a conspiracy that controls not only the fate of Rafter Crossing but the heart of a beautiful but tormented young woman--and Shevlin's own destiny.