Set in 1891 in Big Horn Valley, Wyoming, the first year of statehood. The three Hammett brothers, Cain, Harry and Dale, find themselves in the middle of a rapidly escalating range war that pits old-time cattle barons against homesteaders who have moved onto the grazing lands.The cattle barons call themselves the "Cheyenne Social Club," and urged on by Lord Peter, an English nobleman with extensive holdings, they commission a hired gun, Hunt Lawton, as Marshal. He is given instructions to drive the small landholders out through fear and intimidation, but the Hammett brothers, each for his own reasons, choose not to run. Harry Hammett, a part-time cattle rustler, is actually in league with Lord Peter's ranch foreman, selling off the Lord's cattle and splitting the take. Dale Hammett is a sheep man and a family man, determined to remain neutral. He eventually is killed in an ambush as Hunt Lawson escalates the violence. Cain Hammett, a reformed gunfighter, finds himself becoming the defacto leader of the small ranchers who refuse to capitulate and move on.
The cattle barons, fed up with the lack of results in their effort to intimidate the opposition, decide to declare all-out war and import two dozen Texas gunman to lead the assault, first on Cain Hammett, then on the small town of Antelope. Harry is finally forced to choose sides. He chooses family and gathers a posse of small ranchers and townspeople to help rescue Cain from the hired mercenaries and cattlemen who have his small cabin surrounded. out war and import