The elderly derelicts in the sleepy Louisiana settlement of La Belle Commune are leading the good life, lazing in the hot sun - until Bushwhack Jack Breaker rides in from Texas with his outlaw band. Former bounty hunter Paladin awakes to find that Marshal Brad Corrigan has been kidnapped, along with saloonist Rik Paulson and storekeeper Alec Mackie - but why? The elegant widow Emma Bowman-Laing knows where - but a rescue bid fails, and her crumbling mansion goes up in flames ...