Journeying from Mexico back home to West Texas, mercenary Tom Buchanan (Randolph Scott) takes a break for the night in the border town of Agry. He soon discovers that almost every resident -- from the crooked sheriff (Barry Kelley) to the shifty-eyed innkeeper -- is a member of the prominent Agry family. When Buchanan defends Juan de la Vega (Manuel Rojas), a young man about to be lynched for shooting the town drunk, he himself is accused of murder and must struggle to escape town alive.