Undercover federal marshal John Carruthers (John Wayne) is suspected by the local sheriff, Jake (George Hayes), of stealing the town's payroll, but his suspicions are sidelined when young Betty Mason (Eleanor Hunt) announces that her father, an important businessman, has been murdered. Without him, supplies will not reach town, and homesteaders will starve. When town leader Malgrove (Edward Peil) offers to buy the locals out, John and Jake get suspicious, and uncover a land-grabbing conspiracy.