Kit Gerardo, also known as The Hawk, is one of Frances's most daring privateers, rescues Rouge from a Spanish ship. She is also a pirate, working to restore the fortune the French took from her. When Kit is captured by the governor of Cartagena, Luis del Toro, Rouge demands that he be hanged for piracy. Only one person knows it, but Kit is the governor's son.
Civil War veteran and former newspaper man Ned Britt returns back to Fort Worth after the war is over and finds himself fighting an old friend who's grown ambitious.
From the trial of the survivors, we flash back to amoral crook Ralph Cotter's violent prison break, assisted by Holiday Carleton, sister of another prisoner...who doesn't make it. Soon Ralph manipulates the grieving Holiday into his arms, and two crooked cops follow her into his pocket. Ralph's total lack of scruple brings him great success in a series of robberies. But his eas...