Steve Lewellyn (Rod Cameron), a drifter, comes into New Mexico just as it is about to be opened up to the law and to commerce by the oncoming railroad, but where a gun is still the deciding factor in disputes over grazing lands. He is set up as the intended scapegoat in a saloon robbery but escapes after killing the gunman in self defense. He picks up the robbery money but is wounded. Rescued by Sharon Lynch (Cathy Downs, daughter of an honest rancher, Steve gives her father, Pete Lynch (Stanley Andrews) the money to buy some short-grass acreage and becomes his partner, but is forced to leave the country after killing a neighboring rancher's brother, also in self defense. Five years later, he returns to the territory and finds Sharon and the other honest people being victimized by the rancher, who has vowed to get revenge on Steve.