Two bullets and a bottle of laudanum shattered Josh Hamilton's dreams of a promising future. Tormented, he finds himself trapped in a world of despair and darkness as he struggles to live in unending misery or setting out on a trail of vengeance. Josh is guided in this journey by Michael O'Rourke, the deranged cafe proprietor, who anoints him for a divine ministry of death; by Big Kate, the brothel matron, who harbors dark secrets of her own; and by Sad Eyes, the buffalo soldier, who helps him discover the meaning of right and wrong, of good and evil. His journey leads him to a remote cabin on Sweetwater Creek where a deadly encounter reveals his future. What will his destiny be? Heaven or hell? Or, somewhere in between?