Johnny Yuma returns home one year after the war's end to find a gang of thugs have extorted a local mine and murdered his father while his father's deputy and the rest of the town live in fear and despair.
Yuma believes there is something very corrupt about a town that tries a horse thief, and sentences him to hang within hours of his capture.
A mortally wounded soldier stumbles into Johnny's camp. Before he dies, he says only one thing: "Fort Concho." Johnny rides to the fort and discovers it empty of soldiers.
Yuma is accosted by two ex Yankee Prisoners seeking to take gold from a Captain Pollack who later Yuma learns is a demented ex-Confederate prison officer who hoards prisoner mined gold with which he plans to reverse the outcome of the war.
Yuma tries to saves a very ill family against a mob lead by a townsman who's calling it diphtheria, and wants to burn them out.
Yuma happens upon a ruthless gang of drifters running out of supplies and proceeds to join in the defense of a nearby family that he has learned the gang is targeting.
Nick Adams
Johnny Yuma
