It was no crime for a young cowboy to want to talk to a pretty girl, but that was what got Tom Lundy killed. The hard men of the Tumbling B, who had survived stampede and Kiowa lance to drive their herd up from Big Bend country, wanted to burn the town down. But Kate Lundy, the Tumbling B's owner, had a better plan. Calling on dozens of seasoned fighters, Kate aimed to strangle the town that lived off cowboy money but had no use for the Texans themselves....

Eccentric detective Nero Wolfe finds himself doing his own investigating when his assistant Archie Goodwin becomes entangled in the strangulation deaths of three women.

This is the first half of the story of Barnabus, the patriarch of the Sackett clan, and his migration to North America in 1600. His saga begins when he discovers a purse of gold coins in the mud of Devil's Dyke in Finland. On the run from English authorities, he meets and marries Abigail Tempany, the daughter of a sea captain. Nick Bardle, the master of a merchant vessel, the Jolly Jack, is half pirate, ready to take any advantage of any activity...