Men of the Cannon ranch are caught in the middle of a confrontation between a neighboring rancher and a young cavalry officer determined to arrest him.

When Lt. Jason Adams reveals his intent to bring in neighboring rancher Henry Simmons on a long-standing desertion charge, Billy Blue makes an ill-advised effort to warn Simmons and his daughter Martha. Resigned to giving himself up, Simmons prepares to do so but, fearing for her father's life, Martha reacts and provokes a military siege of their home.

Embittered former revolutionary Diego De La Paula leads his newly-formed army of liberation in a series of harassing raids on the vast lands and herds of the Cannons and Montoyas. He charges they won their wealth at the expense of his deposed hero, Maximilian. Aware of the seriousness and growing destructive power of the vengeful Diego, John Cannon and Don Sebastian Montoya join forces to thwart the attacks with a unique plan that results in a face-to-face confrontation between the elder Montoya and the self-styled liberator. good show

Needing to get away temporarily from the rigors of ranch life, Buck chooses the raucous Fourth of July holiday for the time and the roughest town in the territory for the place

Soon after his arrival in Spokes, a lawless community run by tough China Pierce, Buck witnesses a saloon shootout in which Pierce's son Bud is killed by Jones, an old friendless trapper who is seriously wounded. Although it was a fair fight, cowering townspeople refuse to help Jones, so Buck goes to the man's aid and then mounts a vigil to await the inevitable explosive confrontation with Pierce.

Returning home from a visit to her father's ranch, Victoria and her escorts Sam and Pedro find infant Joey, the only survivor of an Indian raid on his parent's wagon. When the boy's grandfather, Dan Casement, spared only because he had gone ahead to scout for water, insists on leaving with the child, a concerned Victoria balks, insisting that she can better care of the baby en route to the safety of the Cannon ranch. Relenting, Casement joins them in their slow trek across the desert while Indians stalk them, awaiting the best time to attack.