When Dalton arrives in Warren's Crossing, the recent heavy rain has made passage across Wilmington Creek impossible. So Dalton works for the brothers who operate the ferry, Jesse and Colbert Thornton, and that forces him to take sides in a festering family feud.
After a stint in prison the man who killed the brothers' father, Locke Sharpe, is returning to town to renew his vendetta against them. With Marshal Rutledge Warren siding with Locke and with Jesse becoming trapped on the other side of the creek, the brothers' situation looks desperate.
Dalton resolves to end the feud, and so he embarks on the most hazardous mission of his life to rescue Jesse and to defeat the many forces aligned against them.