Young dandy Fletcher J. Ralston's privileged life of education and ease in the east comes to an abrupt end when he's summoned to the dried-up Wyoming town of Promise to inherit a run-down bordello and a lifetime of debts. The old woman he's known only via correspondence as his "aunt" is in truth the madam of the brothel. After their meeting, she is found with her throat slit, and Fletcher is suspect number one. But the old lady's paramour, crusty Gunnar Tibbs, believes in his innocence and sets about mentoring the tenderfoot. Fletcher is a quick study with the revolver, and the unlikely pair set out to clear his name and track down the real killer. What they don't know is that someone is stalking them in return: Skin Varney, the notorious, unsavoury brute Fletcher's father double-crossed years before. Fletcher J. Ralston has to learn the ways of the West, and fast. Or he'll die with his spats on.