After "The Bad Man from Bodie" arrives in Hard Times and terrorizes the townspeople with rape, murder, and arson, the few survivors work to restore their town.

Most of the residents flee, leaving Blue (the town's unofficial mayor) to rebuild alongside Molly Riordan (a prostitute) and Jimmy Fee (the young son of one of the murdered men).

Blue's plan succeeds, and the town gains a general store, a restaurant, a sheriff, and a name: Hard Times.

Molly, traumatized by the Man from Bodie and afraid of his return, urges Blue to move the three of them out of Hard Times.

With the help of Swede, a remaining resident of Hard Times, Blue designs a barbed wire trap for Turner outside of Zar's saloon.

[7] The novel's unromanticized depiction of the American West (highlighting violence, failure, and regression) marks it an early example of a post-Western.