"In 1848, Dooley Monahan, son of struggling Iowa pioneers, went off to pick up a new milk cow. Young Dooley never came home. Now, nearly three decades later, Dooley Monahan has become an accidental legend, managing to plant a bullet in the chest of a dangerous outlaw. All Dooley really wants is to claim his reward at a bank in Phoenix and make his way North to a gold strike he read about in a newspaper. But fate has other plans. It starts with a family...

"When Dooley Monahan saves Buffalo Bill Cody's life, Cody grubstakes him to purchase of a silver mine in the lawless, violent boomtown of Leadville, Colorado. When he guns down three outlaws, the grateful townsfolk make Dooley sheriff. Then he discovers a town tradition: if a sheriff's no good, they hang him. And fingers are starting to point"--