Cavalry veteran Sergeant Bill Disher is driven to drunken rage when his close friend Little Tom is killed in an accident. Disher bitterly blames the modernization and expansion of the West, and burns down Cimarron's funeral parlor.

When a band of wolf hunters, whose very success has put them out of business, are becoming a problem for the settlers of the Cimarron Strip. Broke and hungry, they resort to killing cattle for sustenance. Marshal Crown offers them a section of land to homestead, but their leader, Sam Gallatin, believes that the life of an outlaw is preferable to that of a dirt farmer.

Marshal Crown is shot while pursuing a murderous gang of outlaws who prey on isolated Indian villages. He is found, hidden and nursed back to health by Heller, a young woman who was raised by Indians but now works for the outlaw gang. Crown and Heller escape to Cimarron, but are pursued by the outlaws who want to punish Heller for her treachery.