A.B. Cowden is long, lean, and every bit as tough as the unforgiving frontier where he makes his home. Since before the Civil War his beef cows have grazed the Arizona range. It was a time when ranchers were neighbors united in the ongoing war against the Apaches and the bandits from south of the border. But in 1885 barbed wire and greed rode into Arizona along with an Eastern cattle baron and ruthless hired guns, like the trigger-happy Briggs brothers. As patriarch of the Cowden clan, A.B. picked up his rifle to face these bushwhackers and thieves. But even his sure-shot and iron will could not save his son Ben from having a price put on his head or his daughter from a greater danger--a band of renegade Apache warriors led by the great chief called Yawner.