Even though Marshal Frank Patch has kept the peace in Cottonwood Springs for over twenty years, he is now the laughing stock of the town liberals who want some new blood in the Marshall's Office. When Patch shoots the drunken Luke Mills in self-defense they get the excuse they had been waiting for. The local newspaper editor, Andrew Oxley, then demands his resignation but Patch refuses to quit and then disgraces Oxley so badly in front of his son Will that Oxley kills himself. Blaming Patch for his father's death, Will wants nothing more than to see Patch dead. Then against he advice of his friends, Patch refuses to quit and decides to marry Claire, the owner of the local saloon and whore house. But when Will shows up at the wedding uninvited with his pistols loaded and reeking of liquor, a showdown is inevitable.