In the late 1800s, the small town of Broken Lance in Kansas was also connected to the Pacific Railroad.

John Bonniwell, a sniper and Civil War veteran en route to a gold mine in Oregon, is in transit when he thwarts a Jesse James gang raid on the local bank.

However, he quickly realizes that Steve Barat expects him to always act in his own way and to regard him as a compliant object of his machinations.

When he messes with Barat and makes it clear to him that he is unwilling to cover his dirty actions as an official, he realizes that this can amount to a life and death fight.

The first trouble is already on the horizon when Barat charges an arbitrarily exorbitant fee, which the rancher John Wagoner is supposed to pay for driving his cattle across the banker's land.

However, he does not yet know that a telegram is on the way to Bonniwell stating that he has been charged with large-scale theft by the authorities in New York and that he has fled his arrest.