A volatile man with a violent past, Ethan Allen Cord lives alone in the frontier mining town of Paradise, California, until the unexpected arrival of a quartet of kin, the orphaned children of his deceased sister. Though gifted as a gunslinger, Cord possesses little aptitude for raising Claire, Joseph, Benjamin and George, four city kids abruptly transported to a farmhouse in the wilderness. With the help of his best friend – John Taylor, an Indian shaman – and stubborn bank owner Amelia Lawson, Cord discovers his own fatherly instincts as he gradually accepts the responsibilities of parenthood.