In the search for his elusive fortune, Rance finds himself in Denver searching for gold. But when he gets an urgent wire asking him to help spring his friend, Jody Barnes, out of jail, the riverboat gambler heads to the queen of the Kansas cow townsAbilene.
When he gets there, Rance realizes much has changed in this once quaint "city of the plains." The railroad has brought prosperity to the town, but the smell of money has attracted an invasion of Texas Cowboys and their cattle, along with the likes of Jesse James and John Wesley Hardin. Everyone wants to take the law into their own hands, but the legendary Marshal Bill Hickok isn't used to taking ordersfrom anybody. With trouble brewing between "Wild Bill" and the unruly Texans, Rance is determined to set his friend Jody free, even if the powderkeg of town politics explodes in all out warfare...