During a drunken spree in the small Wild West town of Bannock, one of a half-dozen workers from a nearby ranch accidentally shoots an innocent man. Bannock's marshal, a righteous man named Jered Maddox (Burt Lancaster), comes to the larger town of Sabbath bearing the dead body of one of the revelers and demands the surrender of the remaining five from sheriff Cotton Ryan (Robert Ryan) and ranch owner Vincent Bronson (Lee J. Cobb), starting a confrontation that threatens to engulf them all.