Lightnin is on a mission of the heart. For ten years he has been relentlessly tracking the killer of his father and step father. His young half sister has also been kidnapped by the killer. All this happened ten years before at their family homestead on a branch of the Cimeron in New Mexico Territory.
Lightnin joined the U. S. Marshalls service and while working under cover headed west in pursuit of justice and the killer. Along the way he met and befriended a rancher named John Delong and his beautiful daughter Della, and their friend a Piute Indian named Ute. Together they thwarted an attempted kidnapping of Della by taking an old Indian trail over the top of a spectacular mountain range.
In his search for his half sister and her abductor Lightnin encounters a mountain lion and grizzlie bear, rustlers and killers, and is treated to some of the most spectacular scenery in the world.
While tracking stolen cattle Lightnin stumbles upon a hidden, lush green valley which is being used by rustlers as a hideout. When he is spotted, he runs for his life and is saved only by his wit and his special custom Sharps rifle.
Della falls in love with Lightnin, but is sure he is having an affair of the heart with Kate Bardwell. If not why is he carrying Kates picture in his bed roll?
Trechery, hardship and danger lurk at every turn in the trail that Lightnin is following. A trail that he hopes will eventually lead to justice and end at the doorstep of the one woman he loves.
