A short, sharp, bitter and somewhat backhanded treatment of a collection of western legends. McMurtry's pungent, punchy, no-nonsense style of storytelling works to remarkable effect in these brief chapters recounting episodes from the lives of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Charlie Goodnight and a few others as they wander across the western plains, blundering and blustering their way doggedly into the stories that would make them legends.