"No more midnight executions." When Montana Territory's new Chief Justice orders the Vigilantes to stop, attorney Daniel Stark, Vigilante prosecutor, is pleased. Other Vigilantes, however, tell his honor, "You should leave capital crimes to us."
When Dan's sixteen-year-old stepson, Timothy, accuses him of murdering his father to get his mother, Martha, and their gold claim, Dan is stunned.
Timothy demands that his mother not marry Dan: "It's him or me." Pregnant with their first child, she refuses, and Timothy boycotts the wedding. Dan tells him, "I will never forgive you for forcing that choice on your mother."
All his life, Dan has wanted a family of his own, but to achieve it, he must convince Timothy, and his other accusers, that he is innocent. He must find the real murderer, but no one knows when the victim was killed.
Then he has to forgive Timothy, but Dan is not a forgiving man.
Dan fears he could be tried and convicted by the court. And if the court doesn't convict him the Vigilantes will.
As he pictures himself on the gallows, the ghost of a hanged man haunts him. Is it a vision of his fate to come? Is it retribution? Dan tells himself, I do not believe in ghosts.
