When his brother Dave is put in jail, Bill Hickok returns to help him. Dave has been charged with attempted murder when the other man drew first. Judge Barlow put him there and Bill gets the Judge to confess. Bill learns that Rance McKee is behind all the trouble and he forces the Judge into the decisions he wants. So Bill heads out by himself to face McKee in the showdown.

Rance McKee, who has Judge Barlow under his thumb, is driving ranchers off their own lands by filing homestead claims with the help of the judge. His actions anger Dave Hickok, who is arrested for shooting McKee's henchman, Gus Logan, in self-defense after Logan tries to illegally evict rancher Seth Harper. His friend Cannonball breaks him out of jail and sends for Dave's brother, Wild Bill Hickok. When Bill rides to his brother's hideout accompanied by Vivian Barlow, the judge's daughter with whom Dave is in love, Dave becomes jealous and orders his brother to leave. Soon after, McKee's men raid the Harper ranch, and the furious rancher rides to Judge Barlow for revenge. After saving the judge's life by shooting the gun from Harper's hand, Bill follows Barlow to McKee's hotel room where he forces him to write a confession incriminating McKee. Bill declares that he will hold the confession until court opens the next morning, when he expects the judge to exonerate Dave. To prevent the judge from testifying, McKee orders Logan to kill him when he leaves his house for court the next day. Suspecting that Barlow's life may be in danger, Bill goes to the judge's house, and when Dave, on his way to court, stops to apologize to his brother, Logan shoots him and Cannonball kills Logan. As the U. S. Marshal accuses Bill of Logan's murder, Harper organizes an irate citizenry against the judge, and Bill convinces them all that McKee is the real villian. While Harper's men cover the McKee gang, Bill brings McKee to justice in a gun duel. With law and order restored, Dave and Vivian are reunited and Bill leaves town, carrying with him Judge Barlow's secret.