John Russell (Paul Newman) finds that the world is not so welcoming when he returns to his Arizona home town to collect his inheritance. A white man raised by American Indians, Russell is subjected to numerous instances of racism when people discover his background. When the stagecoach Russell is riding in is held up by a gang run by one of the scheming passengers, Cicero Grimes (Richard Boone), it falls to Russell to defend the passengers -- the very people who have dismissed and insulted him.