John Sands (Rod Cameron), formerly a Texas marshal whose talents with guns caused the law to turn against him,is a fugitive in Mexico, when he learns from "Dusty" Stewart (Cathy Downs)that his brother in the Texas panhandle, Billy Sands (John C. Champion), her fiancé and crusading newspaperman, his been mysteriously murdered in Sentinel, Texas. Despite the price on his head, Sands comes north to the panhandle to find his brother's killer.