Marshall Crown hires a one-handed gunslinger as a deputy, not realizing the man has assumed the identity of a slain lawman and is intent on avenging himself on members of his former gang who abandoned him after he was wounded in a payroll hold-up.

While escorting a man to his trial in New Mexico, Crown is attacked by a pair of outlaws and stripped of his badge and identification. While chasing the escapee, the pursuer becomes the pursued when a vengeful posse and a grizzled bounty hunter mistake Crown for a killer.