In 1920, seeing a pretty young woman flying a Curtis Jenny, a World War I aircraft, over the ranch country of central Montana is a spectacle to behold. The evening of her maiden flight, a large party crowded the main street of Two Dot, Montana. The next morning the body of the mechanic who traveled to Montana with the airplane is found on the boardwalk in front of the saloon. A hand written note is impaled upon the dead man's chest by a German bayonet. Nate Hamilton, a former schoolmate of Merci Bruce and the son of a neighboring rancher is suspected of committing the murder, with little more evidence than the belief that he is enamored of Merci's. When charged with the murder, Nate begs Merci s attorney brother, Spencer Bruce, to defend him. Both Merci and Spencer believe Nate is innocent. Merci s attention focuses on the bad tempered barkeep as the killer. But there are other possibilities, yet nothing that Merci learns seems to tie the crime to any of them. When it is time for the trial, Spencer and Merci's father, T. C. Bruce, who had long since traded his days as a trial lawyer for the life of a rancher, is drawn in to the courtroom to try to help save the young neighbor from the hangman's noose