The stranger on his unshod horse arrived in Shepler's Spring in late springtime seeking Henry Shepler the blacksmith. That was the beginning of a killing in the roadway, then a night-long battle around the stage-company's corralyard, and for Henry Shepler, a twist in his life he had never dreamed could happen. It also touched the life of the town's harness-maker, its proprietor of the general store, and Simon Langley who owned the saloon, and had the second stranger shot down just beyond his doorway. For Henry, the final improbability occurred when Rosie O'Leary had a visitor at her cafe. That, more than any of the rest of it, broke Henry Shepler's life out of its insular cocoon.