Despite his innocence, Adam Ballard had served eight years in prison. On release he returns to the Texas cattle ranch where he grew up. But his father is dead and his stepmother has remarried, and the past and present have entwined in a web of violence. Drawn into a bitter rivalry where guns blaze and men are lynched, Adam's past is part of the jigsaw of double-dealing, murder...and MAVERICKING, the illegal branding of other men's cattle.