 In the turn-of-the century Texas town of Cottownwood Springs, marshal Frank Patch is an old-style lawman in a town determined to become modern. When he kills drunken Luke Mills in self-defense, the town leaders decide it s time for a change. That ask for Patch s resignation, but he refuses on the basis that the town on hiring him had promised him the job for as long as he wanted it. Afraid for the town s future and even more afraid of the fact that Marshal Patch knows all the town s dark secrets, the city fathers decide that old-style violence is the only way to rid themselves of the unwanted lawman.