Ivy Vanderbilt is a landscape artist, beautiful and rich, and her wealth came from sponges that were not used for bathing. Young Bill Foley is attracted to her, and she to him. The shadow on the romance is Wyatt Winslow. Wyatt was presumed killed in the War of Secession but has returned to challenge Young Bill because he fathered a child with his sister but refused to marry her.Young Bill is not worried, because he has been trained by Lyle Sanford, the quick-draw artist in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, but Wyatt outdraws Ivy's bodyguard, so Young Bill knows they are fast enough to kill each other; if that happens, Wyatt wins. Sam Ordway is seventy but wiry lean and looks sixty. He is Town Marshal of Foley, Texas. Abbey Foley is his daughter.Abbey has married Old Bill Foley, Catholic Irishman and wealthy rancher, and their only son is Notre Dame educated, Young Bill. Old Bill admits to Sam he is Molly Gibbs father.Molly is Molly, and her beautiful head of Foley hair is there for everyone to see even if she doesn't know where it came from.