Drifter Reason Conant is sheltering in a cave when a stranger bursts in on him, whom Reason kills in self-defence. Then he finds that the man's horse has a bullet wound, his saddlebags contain no provisions, and his canteen is filled with sand - someone had evidently not wanted the man to survive out in the wild. Reason's hunch that trouble is close by proves true when he is captured by Sheriff Kramer and his posse, and is accused of murdering the local newspaper editor...
