This collection of seven stories includes the tale of a young mustanger taking a wagonload of eligible young women with matrimony in mind to Oregon; a captain in the Second Texas Dragoons, has to prove himself in battle against Mexican irregulars; Lyle Kearny fights Gus Stoneman's plan to improve life for the settlers of the San Augustin Plains by building a dam on Kearny's land; a traveling handyman decides to help the attractive owner of a struggling Oregon vineyard; Marshal Gus Hobbs, the most notorious hangman in New Mexico, is called upon to hang a murderer only to find things are not what they seem.