In 1884, J. Pete Hankins, Ora Mae Hankins, Wire Hankins, Hog Hankins, and Lester Hankins free family member Ferd Hankins from a Montana Prison Farm chain gang, though Lester is wounded during the break-out. Meanwhile, Joel Rigney, an eleven-year-old Quaker farm boy, visits his neighbor, Mr. Pepperdine, a former gunfighter turned farmer. Not far away, the Hankins gang stops at Joel’s house to dress Lester’s wounds. While Joel’s mother, Martha Rigney, takes care of Lester, Joel’s older sister, Catherine, goes to the barn, followed by the simple-minded Ferd. Ferd rapes and murders the girl, and just as Joel’s father, Kermit Rigney, arrives home, Martha finds Catherine’s body in the barn and screams. The Hankins outlaws shoot Kermit and Catherine. As Joel Rigney walks toward home from Mr. Pepperdine’s, the outlaws ride by without noticing him. The boy arrives home to find his family dead. After the funerals, the Quaker community’s elders meet to decide who will take care of the orphaned boy, but Joel demands to know who will avenge his family. When the elders remind him that as Quakers they never answer violence with violence, Joel retorts with a passage from the Book of Deuteronomy: “Life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.” Joel later tells Mr. Pepperdine that he is going to find his family’s murderers. When Joel sneaks into Mr. Pepperdine’s cabin to borrow his shotgun, he sees an old newspaper in a trunk that reads: “'Kid’ Pepperdine Guns Down Two of Staunton Boys,” along with a set of pearl-handled pistols. Returning home, he saddles up Jack, his father’s mule, and goes after the outlaws. Meanwhile, the Hankins family encounters Rattler S. Gravley, a traveling medicine man, who gives them several bottles of “medicine.” When Mr. Pepperdine returns to his cabin, he sees that Joel has taken his shotgun. He puts on his pistols, grabs his coat, and rides after the boy. That night, sitting by a fire, Joel remembers happy moments with his family, and swears to his mother he will avenge their deaths. The next day, Joel meets Rattler, who tells him the outlaws rode off in the direction of the mountains, and gives him a bottle of the same medicine he gave the Hankins family. As the boy moves on, he encounters several Indians, but they leave him alone. Joel rides higher into the snowy mountains, and as soon as he dismounts, howling wolves frighten Jack and send him running, leaving Joel without his water canteen and shotgun. Jack struggles on foot through a snow storm, until he comes upon an Indian holding Jack for him. The Indian hangs a couple of squirrels or rabbits on Joel’s saddle horn and rides off. The following day, the Hankins family arrives at a town. Two of the boys, Hog and Wire, visit a bordello run by Maydell, a young madam, and see their brother, Ferd, coming downstairs with a prostitute. The three draw their guns and rob the customers. Later, outside town, the outlaws bury Lester. While the family stands around the new grave, Joel approaches quietly among the trees. The family leaves the graveside, except for Ferd, but when Joel tries to shoot him from behind a tree, he loses his nerve and runs away. Ferd hears him and follows. Ferd shoots first and misses, forcing Joel to kill him. Later, Mr. Pepperdine comes upon the fresh graves of Lester and Ferd. To test his draw and aim, he uses their crude wooden crosses for target practice. Meanwhile, Joel sneaks up on the Hankins family in a fog, kills Ora Mae, and wounds Hog. Later, Joel approaches a barn where J. Pete and Wire nurse Hog’s wounds. The two outlaws capture Joel and tie him up. Soon afterward, Mr. Pepperdine arrives, and in a shootout kills the remaining members of the Hankins clan. When Mr. Pepperdine walks outside and throws his pistols into a well, Joel takes the shells out of the shotgun and also throws it down the well. He and Mr. Pepperdine ride together toward home.