In 1882 (a year after the actual gunfight at the O.K. Corral on October 26, 1881), Wyatt Earp, Morgan Earp, Virgil Earp, and James Earp are driving cattle to California when they encounter Newman Haynes Clanton and his sons. He offers to buy their herd, but they curtly refuse to sell. When the Earps learn about the nearby boom town of Tombstone, Arizona, the older brothers ride in, leaving the youngest, James Earp, as watchman. The threesome soon learns that Tombstone is a lawless town without a marshal. Wyatt proves the only man in the town willing to face a drunken Indian shooting at the townspeople. When the brothers return to their camp, they find their cattle rustled and James murdered.