J.D. Wilkes was born and raised to be a Southern aristocrat, but the Civil War left him destitute and an enemy in his own land. With no future and a suspect past, he ventures out into the wild frontier of West Texas. He quickly finds that a young man is little more than a willing sacrifice to the older, more skilled operators in the untamed West. He is brutalized and victimized until he learns to fight back. The more he wins, the further he drifts from the Christian upbringing his father had instilled in him long before. J.D. struggles to find a way to survive the turbulent West and retain his soul.