Newt Call, the bounty hunter, returns to Lonesome Dove to find a town that is nothing like what he left after Hannah died. Everyone he once knew has changed as well as himself. Newt also deals with some angry feelings towards Mosby as he fights with the new town sheriff.

A young boy is captured and tried for murder, and Call hates to see him hang. Even Austin feels guilty, but knows that in Curtis Wells, the law is the law.

Mattie gets involved with a man from Mosby's past who has only murder on his mind.