After the incredibly dark psyche of the main character in Man with a Gun, the hero in The Long Sundown was his polar opposite. Jake Hobart was honorable and noble. Unfortunately, his brother Sam was a scum-sucking pig who spent most of his life cheating and stealing. Sam's bad business dealings bankrupted the family business of training wild horses for domestic duties.

To save the business and protect the family name, Jake and a few of his friends must complete the sale and transfer of one hundred trained horses to Fort Adams. Along the way they must fight a band of con men that were in cahoots with Sam. In the end, as a literary pun concocted by Dean, Jake and his men literally had to wait for the cavalry to arrive from the fort.