In the remote border country of South Utah, a man is about to be whipped in order to pressure Jane Withersteen into marrying against her will. The punishment is halted by the arrival of the hero, Lassiter, a gunman in black leather, who routs the persecutors and then gradually recounts his own history of an endless search for a woman abducted long ago. Secrecy, seduction, captivity, and escape: out of these elements Zane Grey built his first acclaimed story of the American West