Railroad surveyor Stephen Bent (Richard Dix) tangles with freight company owner Jeptha Marr (Lee J. Cobb), who fears the coming railroad will bankrupt his business. With the help of Marr's sympathetic daughter, Vinnie (Jane Wyatt), Stephen gets Marr's assistant, Gideon (Albert Dekker), on his side. But, when a rival railroad's representative (Victor Jory) implies that Stephen is having an affair with investor Rita Molyneaux (Lola Lane), it threatens everything Stephen has worked for.