Gunslinger Lorn Warfield (Glenn Ford) returns home after a three-year absence to discover his family has been kidnapped by hostile Apaches. Intent on rescue, Lorn joins forces with Owen Forbes, a rancher who despises him but desires his wife, Angie (Barbara Babcock). As the duo move deeper and deeper into the circles of a hellish West, the gunslinger turns ever more to the ways of peace, while a savage fury awakens in the heart of the rancher.

Warfield (Glenn Ford) is the dispassionate ex-gunslinger who joins forces with peaceful neighbor Forbes (Arthur Kennedy) to help him track down the Apache Indians who have kidnapped Warfield's wife and children two months prior. In searching for the abductees, the hardened gunslinger eventually keeps a level head while the even-tempered Forbes turns into a cold-blooded killing machine. Warfield and Forbes eventually complete their personality changes that lead to the inevitable western showdown. Initially a television movie made for ABC, the company decided to release the film only in theaters.