After four years of bloodshed, the Civil War finally ends. Discarding his weapons, Southern soldier Jefferson Waring (John Ireland) dedicates himself to the cause of pacifism. Waring relocates to a quiet frontier town in Missouri, where he hears news of profiteer Artemus Taylor (Lon Chaney) and a campaign of intimidation against local property holders. When several of his neighbors are killed by Taylor's gang, the newly nonviolent Waring struggles to determine the right thing to do.