The day Clay Shelton is set to be hanged, he requests to speak with the inspector who arrested him, Arnold “Betcher” Long. He tells Long that the Gallows Hand will have its revenge. Assuming he is a dead man trying to delay the inevitable, Long ignores him. But when the judge who sentenced Shelton is murdered, he finally starts to take notice.

Soon more people involved with the Shelton case begin to die, all killed by a shadowy organization known as the Terrible People, and Long knows it’s only a matter of time before he’s next.