Texas Ranger, Frank McLeod is back and, again, he's not in Texas.

This story, a sequel to Ruidoso, opens in mid-December 1881, near Jerusalem, in Arizona Territory, some twenty miles southeast of Prescott. Jerusalem, a quasi-ghost town since 1875, boasts a small but weird collection of inhabitants: a crippled mining engineer, a beautiful tomboy, and several neer-do-wells.

It has taken Frank McLeod several months to trail a fugitive, Isaac Mller, from Texas. Isaac is a young and handsome psychopath who has involved himself in vice, assault, theft, and finally, the murder of a Texas Ranger. Close on his trail now, Frank tracks Isaac through a series of four new murders in Williams, Prescott, and Jerusalem.

The crux of the story is packed into an exciting seven-day period ending on Christmas day, when . . .