Retired and wealthy General Crommer is dying. He asks Padadin, who holds an old grudge against him, to do him a favor. He asks him to take a message of forgiveness to another man who hates Crommer. A favor which might get Paladin killed.

Paladin is drawn into a dispute between a male farmer and a female cattle rancher, with a fortune in buried treasure at stake.

A fortune teller predicts trouble for Paladin in the extremely near future.

Sweetwater was a wild town before Thomas Carey, a retired Army scout and old friend of Paladin, became marshal. But Carey has taken over complete control and turned into a killer. Paladin has to stop him and Carey has always seemed the faster of the two.