When a horseman rides into camp, with a bullet hole in his gut and not long for this world, Will Jones finds not only that the dying man has a gang of New South Wales mounted police on his tail, but a canvas-wrapped parcel in his saddle bags. A scrawled address includes the promise of a reward to deliver the package to a station-owner in Western Queensland.

With two mates, and an unexpected hanger-on, Will sets out on an adventure across two lawless states in 1880s Australia. Yet, he soon learns that there is a price on his head, and that he is an unwitting tool in a game with mysteriously high stakes.