Will Lockhart (James Stewart) comes to the ranch town of Coronado looking for the man who is selling rifles to the Apaches, because his brother was killed with one. There he runs into Alec Waggoman (Donald Crisp), an aging rancher with a violent son named Dave (Alex Nicol). A conflict between Dave and Vic (Arthur Kennedy), Waggoman's top aid, helps Lockhart uncover the source of the rifles -- and also gets him involved in the power struggles at the Waggoman ranch.