Buck Maxwell buys a hardware store and finds he is saddled with huge debt to a church building committee - money which had been in the care of the previous owner, has been stolen by Snake Ed McFee. Buck was ramrod of a spread in Bighorn country until the big die-up finished off the outfit, and used to dealing with problems the direct way. But now it's town rules, and the more he tries to go by them, the more things go wrong—and people die. In the end Buck lines up a row of coffins in front of his store and starts filling them.