The Killing opens with Rudy Coulter dead, shot by Arch Dorrance in a jealous rage when Arch had come home to find his wife in Rudy s arms. Dorrance s act is considered justified and he is acquitted. The Coulter family objects to the verdict, and when Arch Dorrance is found hanging from the limb of a tree, Guy Coulter, father of the clan, is the prime suspect. Knox Coulter, Guy s son and Rudy s brother, finds proof that points towards the real killers, but the sheriff is already on his way to Coulter s ranch with a posse to dispense his own form of justice."