In 1895, Red Bluff rancher Jeff Carson eagerly awaits the homecoming of his adopted son Sunset, and as he prepares a special dinner, sends his foreman, Utah, to town to greet Sunset. While Jeff is alone at the ranch, however, he is confronted by four bandits, including leader Clint Hawkins. Clint caustically greets Jeff, who used to be an outlaw known as The Cherokee Flash. Jeff protests that he has gone straight after being released from prison ten years earlier, but Clint demands that Jeff hide the group from an approaching posse or else he will tell Sunset about his father's criminal past. Sheriff Baldwin leads the posse, which is searching for the perpetrators of a bank robbery, and is suspicious of Jeff's attempt to hide the bandits. During a shootout, three of the culprits escape, but Clint is wounded and captured, after which he bitterly reveals Jeff's past and declares that he is still part of the gang. While Baldwin arrests Jeff with Clint and takes them to jail, Utah meets the stagecoach carrying Sunset. Also onboard is Toni Mason, who is moving to Red Bluff to join her father, the town's new doctor. After seeing Baldwin incarcerate Jeff, Sunset goes to the jail, where Jeff confesses his past, but swears that he has not been involved in any criminal activities in many years. Sunset hires attorney Mark Butler to defend Jeff, who tells Butler that Clem Davis, a neighboring ranch hand, can provide Jeff with an alibi for the time of the robbery, during which a bank teller was killed. Unknown to Jeff and Sunset, Butler and Sheriff Baldwin are the secret leaders of the gang, and Butler, who is afraid that Clint may talk, kills him with a knife. Clint shouts the name "Blackie" as he is stabbed, and Sunset determines to find the mysterious culprit. The Carsons' neighbors, angry that the bank robbery has wiped out their life savings, demand that Jeff make restitution, and Butler advises Sunset to sell the ranch. Butler and Baldwin hope to gain control of the property, which includes valuable water rights, but Sunset refuses to sell. Butler then knifes Clem in the back, and the dying man's words inadvertently implicate Sunset. When Baldwin attempts to arrest Sunset, he escapes and, with Utah's help, breaks Jeff out of jail. Desperate to get his prisoners back, Baldwin arrests Utah and beats him mercilessly, but Utah refuses to divulge the hiding place of his friends. When Dr. Mason and Toni learn of Utah's predicament, Toni rides off to find Sunset, but she is spotted by Baldwin's corrupt deputy, Green. Sunset and Jeff bypass Baldwin's ambush and rescue Utah, then learn from Dr. Mason that Clem died instantly and therefore could not have made a statement implicating Sunset in his death. Sunset and Jeff then capture rancher Tom Stanton, who admits that he made the false statement about Clem in order to help Baldwin, who promised him access to the Carsons' waterhole. When Sunset then questions Stanton about "Blackie," Jeff tells him that Blackie was Butler's college nickname. Determined to ferret out the criminals, Jeff and Sunset get Stanton to call a town meeting in the saloon. After everyone is assembled, Sunset and Jeff send in a rock with a note stating that they will shoot the guilty persons as they exit the building. They pretend to shoot Green as he leaves, and the nervous Baldwin runs out, yelling that he did not commit the murders. Butler knifes Baldwin as he runs, but is captured by Sunset before he can escape. Later, Toni assures Sunset that she would like ranch living, and Jeff finally gets to serve dinner to his son and their friends.