Tim O'Neil returns home to find that his brother Jerry, the sheriff, has just been killed and that the family of Tim's sweetheart, Myra Harmon, is somehow involved. Myra's father Jed refuses to attend the inquest, and although her brother Chad agrees to testify, he plans to leave town immediately after the hearing. Tim, dissatisfied with the town's idea of justice, begins his own investigation, during which he discovers that Jed is being blackmailed by a man named Kramer and that Kramer is linked to Jerry's death. When Ludlow, Kramer's appointed sheriff, arrests Jed, Tim breaks into the jail, helps Jed escape, and takes him to Jerry's room, where he writes a confession to an old murder charge Kramer is holding over him. Tim leaves Jed alone, and Kramer sneaks into the room and shoots Jed, cleverly making it look like a suicide. Tim returns, spots the flaw in Kramer's plot, and demonstrates how Kramer could leave the body in a room bolted from the inside. Tim and Kramer shoot it out, Kramer is killed, and it is revealed that Jed is still alive and is actually innocent of the old murder. The Harmon name is thus cleared, and Jerry's death is avenged, leaving Tim and Myra free to marry.