Bottleneck is a wild and woolly town run by the crooked Kent, who owns the Last Chance Saloon and romances the saloon's feisty songstress, Frenchy. After Kent, in a scheme to seize ranch land and institute a toll crossing, uses a crooked card game to cheat Lem Claggett out of his ranch, Sheriff Keogh goes to question Kent and is never seen again. As a joke, Kent's mouthpiece, Mayor Hiram J. Slade, appoints the town drunk, Washington "Wash" Dimsdale, as sheriff. However, Wash fools Kent and his cronies when he sobers up and sends for Thomas J. Destry Jr., son of the celebrated sheriff and gunfighter, to be his deputy. When Destry arrives, however, he informs the amused citizenry that he does not carry a gun, and proceeds to combat lawlessness with homilies, much to the disgust of rancher Jack Tyndall and the delight of Kent. Destry then begins a probe of the sheriff's death, which ends in the arrest of Gyp Watson, one of Kent's henchmen, for murder. Seeking to stalemate Destry, Kent appoints Slade judge, but when he learns that Destry has sent for an honest judge, he and his gang break jail, shoot Wash in the back and free Watson. Furious, Destry straps on his guns and leads Tyndall and the other ranchers to a shootout with Kent. Meanwhile, Frenchy, who is attracted to the ingenious Destry, rallies the town's women to support their men and, armed with rolling pins, they storm the saloon. In the ensuing chaos, Frenchy meets her death while shielding Destry from Kent's bullet, and in retribution, Destry kills Kent, whose death ushers in an era of peace for the town of Bottleneck.