Rancher Bill Belllounds had brought up Columbine as though she were his daughter. Out of affection for her foster father, Columbine had agreed to marry Bill's son., Jack-a drunkard, gambler, coward, and thief. But the man she really loved was cowboy Wilson Moore, and he was everything Belllound's son should have been.

Then the strange, clairvoyant little man they called Hell-Bent Wade came to work at the ranch. "You can believe me when I say somethin' will happen," he declared prophetically. "Columbine isn't goin' to marry Jack Belllound's.