Jane and her husband Bill "Ham" Hammond live in an isolated house with their five-year-old daughter Katie. One day Ham returns home with several serious bullet wounds. As Jane is attending to his injuries, Ham tells her that the Bishop Boys, a group of criminals that Ham used to ride with, are coming for him.

Ham's injuries have rendered him helpless, so Jane takes her daughter to safety with a woman she trusts. She then rides to the home of a neighbor and former lover, Dan Frost, and asks him to help her protect her family from the Bishop Boys. Dan, a surly man living in a squalid house, bitterly refuses.