Dempsey has a female acquaintance in town (Idonee) and both men decide to stay, after being hired to work (as alleged fellow-Texans) by Strap Davis, on a 10,000 head ranch for its new owner Reed Bowman.

When Bowman finally arrives, Dempsey is surprised to find that he has been working for a very attractive woman (Jeanne Crain).

Dempsey falls for her, but the inevitable range war Bowman creates prompts him to defect to the other side.

He has a deep hatred for barbed wire, but he finds that there is no clear moral side to the fight.

In the scenes where Kirk Douglas's character is standing next to the cattle train, the car's identification marks state it was built in December 1923 (BLT 12-23) which was well after the film's late 1800s time period (there were no railroads Out West in 1823).