The book describes a series of murders perpetrated in the early 1870s by the four members of the so-called Bender family. The murders were committed at a roadside inn, on the prairie, nine miles from Cherryvale, Kansas. The author has sifted the reminiscences of long-forgotten neighbors for revelations; she has searched newspapers of the period and shares newly discovered documents; her skeptical eye examines the conclusions of previous chroniclers.