Plot summary

1894. Prim and proper innocent Catherine Ballou has just returned to her hometown of Wolf City, Wyoming, to begin her working life as a schoolteacher. She learns that an unknown someone is conspiring to force her father, Frankie Ballou, off his ranch in the name of development, that person or people having hired "muscle" in the form of vicious, tin-nosed Tim Strawn. Frankie and his sole ranch hand, a mild-mannered Cherokee named Jackson Two-Bears, are ill-equipped to defend the ranch. As such, Cat takes it upon herself to fortify themselves in the form of convicted cattle rustler Clay Boone - who, in his assistance, has the ulterior motive of wanting to get into Cat's bed - and Clay's associate, "Uncle" Jed, who both may be of little help in admitting that they have never fired a gun in their crimes. So into whose basket Cat places most of her eggs is another hired gun she sees advertised on a poster, Kid Shelleen, who, after her $50 payment to him with her merchandise sight unseen, she learns is not all he is advertised to be. Cat's mission changing from protection to retaliation leads her into her own life of crime. What happens in this situation is affected by the Kid's own unspoken history, most specifically with Strawn.—Huggo