Hard-bitten wanderer Jim Slater (Richard Widmark) rides the range seeking to avenge his father's death. Along the way he meets frontier widow Karyl Orton (Donna Reed), who is being hunted by gunslinger Johnny Cool (William Campbell). The unlikely duo endures various hardships as Slater comes to suspect his father died from something more sinister than an apparent Apache ambush. Director John Sturges (who would later helm Bad Day at Black Rock and The Magnificent Seven) lends this serpentine tale of revenge a heavy does of atmosphere.