The movie was set in the Old West years immediately following the Civil War, in the cattle town of Abilene, Kansas.

Plot

In the years following the Civil War, Kansas is in the middle of a difficult time. Homesteaders are moving into the west, trying to start new lives, and are going head to head against cattlemen who have been settled in that territory for years. In Abilene, one of the biggest cattle towns of the west, the town is on the brink of a confrontation between the cattlemen and the homesteaders.

Marshall Dan Mitchell (Randolph Scott), who is the law in Abilene, has the job of keeping the peace between the two groups. For a long time, the town had been divided, with the cattlemen and cowboys having one end of town to themselves, while townspeople occupied the other end. Mitchell liked it this way, it made things easier for him, and kept problems from arising between the two factions. However, when homesteaders decide to lay stakes in the cowboys end of town, that balance is upset, and leads to a deadly showdown.

The leader of the homesteaders is Henry Dreiser (Lloyd Bridges), a young man with good common sense, and the local sheriff is Bravo Trimble (Edgar Buchanan), a lawman who would rather play cards than be involved in any confrontation. Mitchell not only has the difficult job of juggling the upcoming confrontation, but also his love life.

Cast

• Randolph Scott, Marshall Dan Mitchell
• Edgar Buchanan, Sheriff Bravo Trimble
• Lloyd Bridges, Henry Deiser
• Ann Dvorak, Rita
• Rhonda Fleming, Sherry Balder
• Helen Boyce, Big Annie
• Howard Freeman, Ed Balder