17-year-old Jubal Young discovers that Billy Tauson's gang of drunks and outlaws has attacked his family's farm, raping and murdering Jubal's mother and sister and leaving Jubal's father for dead. Jubal is forced into manhood much sooner than expected when he is forced to shoot his own father to put him out of his misery. The memories of his family, his own guilt, and the echoing life lessons of his father, along with the beneficence of a kindly local Judge, help Jubal to seek vengeance on his family's attackers, pursuing them throughout New Mexico's gold mining towns, until he has his final vengeance. Jubal is sustained in this task by his friend Bob, the love of the Judge's daughter, Cybil, and his literary hero, Edmond Dantes of The Count of Monte Cristo.