Jeff is wounded in a gunfight and taken in by a family who share a dark secret: one of their sons was killed by James Sonnett. After framing Will for theft, the Father plans to kill Jeff as soon as he can hold a gun. The distraught Mother has other ideas, wanting to keep Jeff as her own son.

Will and Jeff are arrested on trumpted up charges and forced to work on a chain gang, blasting a tunnel through a mountain for the railroad. Once there, the two find that any traveller passing through town has been bushwhacked and forced to work until they drop dead while the Sheriff and the Judge pocket the proceeds.