Dan Willard is filling in as temporary marshal while Micah is away. Some Texas cowhands are in North Fork looking for some fun and relaxation, but Dan keeps coming down hard on them. Dan's father tells Lucas that he feels Dan is trying to prove himself as a man to compensate from being dropped from West Point Academy because of his poor eyesight. The Texas cowhands have had enough of being pushed around when Marshal Dan posts an ordinance that all visitors must check their guns at the Marshal's office. Now, they're out to cause some real trouble for Dan.

Aaron Pelser's wagon train came across a pair of young boys on a buck board heading west and invited them to join the train. When he found out that one of the boys was actually a girl and the two claimed to be headed to Yuma to get married, Pelser and his crowd force them to be married in North Fork. The wagon train folks want to throw a shivaree, which may have been innocent enough except for two reasons. The first reason being that the couple does not count it as their wedding because they want to be wed by the groom's father in Yuma. The second reason is that Chet Packard keeps pushing things too far, beyond the spirit of a friendly shivaree.

When an expected lawman doesn't arrive from Denver, several gunfighters arrive in North Fork and cause trouble.

An assassination plot unfolds as four gunmen disguised as cavalrymen enter North Fork. Their target: Sen. Jim Borden. Their weapon: a Gatling gun.