Wes Tancred has killed a popular gunslinger in self-defense. Because there is a mean-spirited ballad sung about this killing wherever he goes, Wes is on the run from his infamy. Along Wes finds a job at an isolated stagecoach outpost, run by father and son Ed and Jody Burrows. When three outlaws try to occupy this outpost, Ed is murdered. West then brings Jody to his aunt Lorna Miller in Table Rock. Lorna's husband, Sheriff Fred Miller, is a traumatized man after a brawl in his past. When a gang of 50 lawless drovers visit Table Rock they cause much violence with even a rancher slain. A frightened Fred does not dare to act because of his past however. The local citizens, Lorna and the 50 drovers now turn their backs on Fred. Wes has always tried not to get involved, but when the gunslinger Jim Breck, whom he knows from the past, arrives on the scene he has to make a difficult decision.
—Robert