Five men arrive in Medicine Bow intent on robbing the bank: Bob Archer (Harry Carey Jr.), Frank Cave (Gene Ellis), brothers Roy (John Goddard) and Cullen Tindall (Harrison Ford), and leader and well-known gunslinger, Del Stetler alias the Modoc Kid (John Saxon). However, they have been observed by Deputy Emmett Ryker and are ambushed by him, Sheriff Abbott (Ross Elliott) and other deputies. Cave is killed and Archer is wounded and captured but the others escape even though Roy Tindall is seriously wounded. They manage to elude the posse and go to Shiloh ranch where the hands are away on a trail drive and only the Graingers are home. They take the Graingers prisoner, forcing Elizabeth to tend to the wounded Roy, and it soon becomes clear the Modoc Kid is obsessed with his own notoriety as a gunslinger. Roy needs medical attention and so the Modoc Kid forces John Grainger to lure Dr. Hinton (Paul Fix) to Shiloh with the pretense that Elizabeth Grainger has broken her collar bone in an ac