US Marshall Piedmont Kelly shackles a stranger to a tree for the night after the man rides into his camp and tries to kill him. When dawn arrives, Kelly finds the man murdered in his sleep. Confused and worried, the marshal sets out to back track the man in hopes of catching his killer.

When U.S. Marshal Piedmont Kelly is asked by Cochise Sheriff John Henry Stevens to look into the suspicious activity of three unsavory bounty hunters, he rides into what looks like a battle's aftermath. Bullet holes riddle a ranch house, but there's no sign of those engaged in the gunplay. Nor is there any sign that the mysterious resident of the ranch house fits the description of the bounty hunters' quarry. There's nothing he can do but to go looking...