The stagecoach in which Bat Masterson, Major Mars and pretty Lottie Tremaine are traveling is waylaid by a vengeful gang led by an Indian whose family was slain when the Major's men wiped out a village. Bat is forced to defend the Major.

Bat's old friend from Dodge City, Marshal Ben Holt, asks him to help fight a scheme plotted by the power-grabbing land baron General Silas Guild. When he arrives, Bat isn't sure that the Marshal is on the side of law and order.

Bat wins a mining claim in a lottery, but a huge bearded man attacks Bat when he tries to find it. He throws Bat into the Trinity River and Bat floats downriver finding his companion Bob Bradbury dead on the other side of the river.

Bat's riding rescues three men from the gallows - he bears an amnesty for all combatants in the Lincoln County War. The three gunmen soon return to their criminal ways and Bat must help the local marshal hunt down the recently freed men.

Several Indian tribes claim that white men are kidnapping their women and children to be sold for slaves or held for ransom. In order to prevent an all-out war with the local tribes, the U.S. Army sends Bat Masterson to investigate.