As a result of a chance meeting, aging U. S. Marshal Alistair B. Taggart recruits an unadventurous, middle-aged blacksmith, John McKinney as his deputy. Out of Taggart's final act of mentoring, a steadfast friendship develops between the two men. Six years later, having stayed at his post longer than most lawmen, Taggart is eyeing the end of his career while McKinney has settled into his new job as sheriff of the mostly quiet town of Winfield, Kansas. Trading his hammer for a badge late in life, the quiet McKinney has always envied the storied career of his eighty-one-year-old friend, regretful of having missed his chance to help tame the frontier as Tagggart had in the wilder days of the West.

But fate sometimes lays bare the foolishness of regrets and McKinney is about to face the two biggest challenges of his career, ones which will hold life or death consequences for him and his aging mentor. Now only friendship stands between them and a bullet...