During the Civil War, Josiah Galt, a former parson, and his sons David, Jacob and Adam, become a gang of bandits who plunder, rob and rape for pleasure. Disgusted by the massacre of the whole population of St. Thomas, Kansas, David drops out of the gang and joins his wife Laura. After their son Pauly was born, David and Laura settle down in Chilon, Texas. A few years later, Galt's gang come there with a view to robbing the local bank.