Trouble was brewing from the moment Dan Clancy rode into Watts Bend. His chance meeting and early friendship with Lance Roebuck is threatened by Clancy''s instant rapport with Lucy Bracken, commonly seen as Roebuck''s future wife. When Lucy rejects Roebuck''s marriage proposal, Clancy, by definition a drifter, is warned off and slowly spirals into becoming the town drunk. Meanwhile, Roebuck has become the town hardcase with ambitions to control the entire range with the help of hired outlaws. Wrongly accused of murdering the town marshal and due to be hung, Clancy manages to break out of jail and head for the hills. Now, sober and with a future mapped out with Lucy, he must return to Watts Bend to settle old scores once and for all.