Tom Selleck portrays Quigley, an American cowboy who is lured to the Austrailian outback (of the 1860's) by an offer from a powerful sheep rancher/land baron (Alan Rickman) to use his sharpshooter skills to shoot troublesome dingoes. What Quigley finds out when he arrives is that Rickman really wants to use his skills to help wipe out the native Aborigine population as part of the country's "pacification by force." A man of moral integrity, Quigley strongly declines this murderous duty and throws his new boss through the window, so... now it's war between them. Also confusing the situation (as well as enlivening it) is a somewhat deranged "trallop" (Laura San Giacomo) who erroneously thinks Quigley is her husband.