In 1885, Walter Burke is making his living as a bounty hunter. After his sister, a New York City socialite, passes away, Walter travels east to assume responsibility for her only son. The young, sickly boy stands to inherit his mother's vast estate, despite protests from the boy's stepfather. Walter takes his nephew west on a long journey into a world the boy has only read about in school books and dime store novels. Walter and the boy embark on their journey as strangers, but after facing danger and adventure together, they begin to form a bond. Then the boy is kidnapped. With a hired band of gunfighters, the kidnapper plans to take Walter to Mexico, leave him for dead and claim the vast inheritance. But he hasn't reckoned on Walter's skills as a rider and tracker, nor on his determination to free his nephew by any means necessary.