There is no knowing what lies in a man's heart On a trip to buy ponies Frank Ross is killed by one of his own workers Tom Chaney shoots him down in the street for a horse 150 cash & two Californian gold pieces Ross's unusually mature & single-minded fourteen-year-old daughter Mattie travels to claim his body & finds that the authorities are doing nothing to find Chaney Then she hears of Rooster
- a man she's told who has grit
- & convinces him to join her in a quest into dark dangerous Indian territory to hunt Chaney down & avenge her father's murder