Jess leaves Townsend, Texas, and heads to Sycamore in search of the next man on his hunt list, a killer by the name of Dan Fletcher, but Fletcher isn’t there. While in Sycamore, he runs into two troublemakers who’ve wreaked havoc on the town. They end up challenging Jess and he kills them both.
He befriends a woman, Belinda, who owns and runs the hotel in Sycamore with the help of a young boy by the name of Jamie. He helps the two of them.
He finds out that the two troublemakers worked for a rich cattle rancher by the name of Claude Benson, a man with a bad attitude and enough money to always get his way. Benson comes into town and confronts Jess, but Jess has dealt with men like him before.
After finding Fletcher in the town of Hillsdale, he takes the body to the town of Holland to turn in for the bounty. He receives a message that Benson has caused more trouble because of what Jess had done.
He returns to Sycamore and confronts Benson, giving him a stern warning, but Benson is a man used to getting his way all the time. Benson hires men to kill Jess. The battle between Jess and Benson begins…and Jess is not a man who likes to lose.
Jess is on the hunt for the next killer on his list, Carsten Lowley. His pursuit takes him to the town of Liberty where he meets a young boy, Buddy, and his mother, Lydia. He discovers that the Bratcher brothers killed Lydia’s husband, Buddy’s father. He agrees to hunt the brothers down and takes Lydia with him.
Along the way, he discovers that the brothers have murdered another man, leaving the widow beaten and afraid to go back to her cabin outside the town of Tundra. Jess and Lydia meet with her, and she confirms that the brothers are the ones who killed her husband.
Jess eventually finds and kills both Bratcher brothers and then continues his hunt for Carsten Lowley. A gunfighter by the name of Marvin Birmingham finds Jess but struggles with the idea of challenging him.
Jess ends up in the town of Ludlow, where he meets United States Marshal Bob Brady, who’s there to take a prisoner from the jail and transport him. Brady is murdered along the way and Frank Reedy assigns Jess the job of hunting down the man who did the killing.
Jess deputizes Birmingham and takes him on the hunt.
Jess is on the hunt for Lyle Dailey, which takes him to the town of Raleigh. When he gets there, Dailey is already gone.
He heads out after him and comes across a widowed woman by the name of Violet living alone in a small cabin and barn. She informs him that Dailey had tried to approach her, but that she ran him off with her rifle.
When Jess heads back out on the trail, Dailey sees him coming and ambushes him. Violet finds him on the trail not far from her cabin. He’s been shot in the shoulder, but still alive.
She tends to his wound at her cabin, joined by the town nurse. Once he’s well enough to travel, they take him to the hotel in Raleigh.
Meanwhile, a cattle baron by the name of Felton Vanover has been attempting to buy her land to get access to the river running through it. Frustrated, he goes out to make another offer, but when he finds her missing, he orders two of his hired guns to burn her place to the ground.
When Jess finds out that the woman who saved his life has lost everything, he vows to make things right one way or another, as soon as he’s well enough.
United States Marshal Frank Reedy travels to Raleigh to watch over Jess and sends John Bodine to the town of Newell, where they think Lyle Dailey is heading. Bodine kills Dailey and then travels to Raleigh to be with Jess.
Problems mount when other gunslingers find out Jess is staying in Raleigh and they start coming for him. If that wasn’t enough, he ends up in a war with Vanover and his hired killers.
Jess is after the cold-blooded killer, Tom Walker, who seems to prefer a bowie knife as his weapon of choice. He comes close to catching him several times, but Walker proves to be a much more elusive prey than most.
To make matters worse, Walker leaves a trail of innocent victims in his wake, and Jess is faced with other setbacks along the way that makes it harder to finally catch the killer.
Jess is on the trail of Ivan Bush, which takes him to the town of Bravo, Texas. On his way, he meets a widow by the name of Penny, who lives outside of town. He befriends her and stays in her place for the night.
After he leaves Bravo, he discovers that two outlaws robbed Penny and beat her to within an inch of her life. He returns to Bravo and arranges for her to be taken care of before heading out on the hunt for the two men who committed the crime.
Then, a United States senator is murdered and the president of the United States offers a five-thousand-dollar reward. Jess goes after the man who killed him.
Along the way, he meets another bounty hunter who wants in on the hunt…but he’s not the only one.