Two cowhands cautiously struggle to free an ornery longhorn from quicksand - one a girl, the other an older man, savagely gored as the steer whirls angrily about. Brian, a rugged adventurer, came down off Ade's Ridge. Years of drifting across the West could have little prepared him for this chance encounter that would suddenly involve him in all the problems and dangers of a cattle ranch. Nor could he have expected the intense family jealousies, the impending threat of a Cheyenne attack, or the mysterious rustler intent on putting an end to the Forked P and to Brian himself.