Men tend to disappear around Blue Mesa, New Mexico. Dick Young, ostensibly an easy-going artist, vanishes close to a deep chasm in this locality ruled by powerful rancher Walt Guisewell, who sees the land he has tamed as his kingdom. Bob Young, brother of the missing man, arrives and proves to be very different from Dick. Sometime soldier, sometime convict and sometime lawman, he wears the holster of his Colt revolver tied down by a rawhide thong - the mark of a gunfighter with a reputation, and not one to be trifled with.