The del Toboscos fail to repay their debt, leading to an ambush by the 7 Rivers Gang; Billy vows that he and the Regulators will take over Lincoln and clear out the thugs.
Antrim, Kathleen and the two boys relocate to Silver City, trying to start a new life. But all their dreams are shattered - and Billy loses everything.
Kathleen and her sons Billy and Joe travel on to Santa Fe. Life is hard, but she meets and marries a man who might change everything for the better - only to find that he makes it a lot worse.
Billy finds fresh trouble when he falls in with a character called Alias. He kills a man in self-defence and ends up on the run, and then in the arms of a young woman who also happens to be the girlfriend of Jesse Evans.
We are on the eve of the Lincoln County War. Jesse and the gang are encouraged by Murphy to ramp up their attacks on those famers, mostly Mexican, who have signed up with Tunstall.
Billy bumps into Pat Garrett, who is riding with Jesse and the 7 Rivers Gang. Billy joins them - but law makers are already closing in. They plan to flee to Lincoln County - but not before Billy fulfils one last promise.
Billy joins Jesse, Pat Garrett and another outlaw called Frank Baker, as well as the rest of the 7 Rivers Gang in their new camp just outside the town of Lincoln. The gang is now working for Lincoln's most powerful boss, Major Murphy.