Erstwhile gunslinger Chris Adams (Lee Van Cleef) has put his rowdy days behind him, settling down with a wife (Mariette Hartley) and serving as the sheriff of his town in the Arizona territory. So when his old pal Jim Mackay (Ralph Waite) asks for help defending the border town of Magdalena, Mexico, from a marauding bandit named De Toro, Chris refuses. It's only after De Toro's gang kidnaps Chris's wife that he changes his mind, enlisting a cutthroat gang of prisoners to help him.