The Jordans Phil and Ruth accompanied by Philips wife Polly and Dr Winthrop Newbury a suitor for Ruths hand bid old Mrs Jordan goodbye at the station of Milford Corners Mass and depart for the West to work over some unredeemed desert land which was left to the Jordans by their dead father Arriving in the west they take up their work but it proves anything but a success On the brink of the Great Divide lives Stephen Ghent an untamed and uncouth man of the West and on account of his manner is respected by the habitués of Millers saloon and dance hall in the town which he and two of his acquaintances in the persons of Pedro a halfbreed Mexican and Dutch a brutal type of the West frequent