Brodie Dent wakes up in a brothel in 1879 Sweetwater, Texas, to learn that a robbery and murder have occurred downstairs. The young ex-Ranger is quickly drafted to join the crusty town marshal on a vengeance ride, as the Marshal's girlfriend was the murder victim. The only witness to the crime is the thirteen-year-old brain-damaged son of the murdered prostitute, and thus the boy must accompany Brodie and the marshal. When the bandits abduct four women in nearby Tascosa, the mission of the posse changes from revenge to rescue, then to escape and later back to vengeance.