Initially resistant to becoming a lawman, Wyatt Earp has a change of heart after seeing the sheriff of Ellsworth, Kansas murdered in cold blood by the inebriated brother of town scourge Ben Thompson.
Joe becomes the target of a tough and vengeful Kentucky family, after he kills one of them who almost sets the Ponderosa on fire and the Cartwrights take in the dead man's daughter.
George Peschauer hates Earp and was kicked out of Ben Thompson's gang for his ruthlessness. He is trying to sell an Englishman a ranch loaded with rustled cattle but a nosy female hotel owner is trying to protect the likable Englishman.
Earp is not happy with Judge Tobin's habit of being liberal with sentencing men to hang. When a dealer he suspects is innocent is given the sentence, Earp concocts a plot to give the Judge a dose of his own medicine hoping to change him.
After Earp's cousin is killed with a knife, Earp decides to go alone to Texas disguised as a cowhand to find the killer. He finds work on a cattle drive riding drag. Things become dicey when the trail boss appears to be involved.