An old friend of Judge Garth named Charlie Ryan (Leif Erickson) revives the low grade silver Gloria Mine with help from his mining college-trained son Craig (Peter Brown) and a new partner Whit Parsons (Whit Bissell). They fall behind in their payments and may not make quotas specified in their contracts. A desperate Craig begins to alienate the locals including Judge Garth with his tactics to save the mine operations. Things come to a head when local cattle begin to die and contaminated mine water is suspected. This leads to conflict not only between the local ranchers and miners but eventually to conflict between Charlie, his son, and especially their business partner, Whit, who seemingly will stop at nothing to make the mine a success.