In the Old West town of Mesquite, Deputy Sheriff Dan Creede rounds up emergency deputies to help chase bank robbers Duke Ellis and Bert Nelson, who are fleeing to the cabin of rancher John Wagner. Just then, Horatius Van Sickle arrives in town with his hypnotist wife Clementine and, thrilled to have an excuse to escape from her, volunteers as a deputy. Inside John's cabin, meanwhile, John tells Duke that he is about to leave for his mother's failing Dollar Mark Ranch in Gunsight, Arizona with his son Tim, and does not want any trouble. When Dan and Horatius arrive and start a shootout, Duke tries to force John to ride away with them, and then shoots him when he resists and pulls out his gun. Duke and Bert escape out the back as Dan and Horatius break in, and, finding John's body, assume he is an outlaw they have killed. After young Tim shows up and cries over his father, a guilt-ridden Dan returns to town, quits his post and offers to accompany Tim to the ranch. Moments after they leave with Horatius, U.S. Marshal Bill Hollister, suspicious that Dan might have quit because he was involved in the robbery, follows them. Meanwhile, Duke and Bert reach Gunsight and convince the Dollar Mark ranch hands, who have not been paid in weeks, to help them steal the ranch's herd during the upcoming cattle run. When Dan, Horatius and Tim arrive at the Wagner ranch a few days later, Dan tells John's mother Ma and his wife Mary that John died a hero. They, in turn, hire Dan as ranch foreman. Later that day, Dan, not recognizing Duke, Bert or Bill, who is working undercover, hires all three as ranch hands. While on the cattle drive, Duke tells Dan that he was involved in the bank robbery and saw Dan's bullet kill John. Duke threatens to reveal Dan's guilt to Mary and Tim unless Dan helps him steal the cattle, and Dan agrees in order to investigate Duke and uncover the stolen bank money. A few days later, after recognizing that Bill is a marshal who suspects Dan, Duke and Bert plant some of the stolen money in Dan's bunk and then tip off Bill as to its whereabouts. When Bill discovers the money and arrests Dan and Horatius, Dan helplessly accuses Duke of a frame-up. In return, Duke announces in front of Mary and Tim that Dan killed John. The next day, Tim sneaks into the jail with his father's pistol and holds up Dan and Horatius, but cannot bring himself to fire at them. Chagrined, he gives the gun to Dan, who realizes that it is fully loaded and has not been fired in weeks, proving that John was not involved in the bank robbery. Tim frees them and they race to prevent Duke from stealing the cattle, while sending Tim back to the ranch to round up a posse. On the range, the men join Mary in a gunfight against the outlaws, which turns into a fistfight when the posse arrives and evens up the numbers. After they subdue the gang, Dan pulls some of the stolen money out of Duke's pocket and shows it to Bill, who forces the outlaws to confess and then arrests them.