After a marshal and deputy are wounded and killed, Gil and Rowdy volunteer to finish the delivery of the prison wagon with seven dangerous prisoners to Ft Craig for trial, while the outlaw husband of one prisoner is in pursuit to free her.

Rowdy's wartime friend, they spent time in a POW camp, is getting married. The bride's stepbrother, a murderer sixteen times over, has returned to claim his share of the family fortune.

A fanatical Southern loyalist lures drovers from Favor and Rowdy with tales of founding a new Confederate empire; guest Lon Chaney Jr.

Gil Favor gets permission from rancher Jed Reston to drive his herd over Reston's land. He discovers, however, that Reston has a bigoted attitude toward Indians, particularly a local Comanche named Taslatch who wants to be a farmer and who's paid for a mail-order plow. (Reston's recently had his son, Matt, give Taslatch 15 lashes on a trumped-up rustling charge.) Favor earns Reston's enmity by siding with Taslatch. Tensions soon escalate until violence is set to erupt between the Comanches and local townspeople and Favor must take decisive steps to intervene.

Four stranded women provide a love interest and a complication for Favor. A freight hauler with a gunfighter says he's using the only river crossing first.

Brother Bent the newest drover sparks gold fever, when he flashes a huge nuggett.