Ben Joyner has no argument with the people who built their homes on the grassland near Pecos, but the cattlemen have long considered the range their own domain and now trouble is brewing. Rancher Gus Remarque is Ben's boss and believes that the dollar a day he pays buys not only a man's labour but his loyalty, too. The time is fast approaching when that loyalty might involve killing or being killed, and Ben wants to wash his hands of this dispute: he did his fighting during the war. So he quits the ranch and rides east without any intention of ever returning to that part of Texas. But a strong-willed woman and two would-be horse thieves alter his plans and he's back on the streets of Pecos when bullets begin to fly.