Ten years after the Civil War ended, the Governor of Texas asks Leander H. McNelly to recommission a company of Rangers to help uphold the law along the Mexican border. Aside from a few seasoned veterans, the recruits are young men, such as George Durham, who have little or no experience with guns or policing crime. The antagonist of the story is King Fisher who is stealing cattle from Texas cattle barons like Richard Dukes and Victor Logan and driving them into Mexico, where he sells them to the Mexican army.