A rancher named John Dembro gives shelter to Cheyenne who's been hurt in an ""incident"" on the adjoining ranch owned by Martin Storm. Both Dembro's teenaged daughter, Johnny, and her stepmother, Sheila, are anxious to treat Cheyenne's injuries and they become bitter rivals. Soon Dembro persuades the recovered Cheyenne to help him unite the other small ranchers to oppose Storm who maintains his authority through a hired ""gun"" named Swallow. Cheyenne kills Swallow in a shootout. Dembro becomes drunk in the ensuing celebration and dies in a fire, though Sheila could have saved him. Now free of her husband, Sheila makes a play for Cheyenne who spurns her. Hurt and angry, the increasingly-deranged Sheila has Cheyenne arrested, claiming he killed her husband. Sheila's deemed too crazy to give credible testimony so Cheyenne is freed but townspeople, believing Cheyenne's guilty, form a lynch mob, egged on by Storm. Johnny arrives on the scene and convinces the crowd of Cheyenne's innocence. Sto