Once an outlaw, John Campbell now leads an honest life as a rancher in the Pondera area of Montana. He and his wife and daughter live on a ranch that is on government land but soon will be given an ownership patent. Sheriff Tom Lane knows of Campbell s past and is his ally. They both worry that men from Campbell s past may seek him out at any time and cause trouble, especially now that Campbell is about to be appointed range agent for the Cattlemen s Association. Just such a man from Campbell s past, an outlaw named Pearlman, arrives on the scene and trouble does begin when he has a run-in with Ricky Odell and Slim Olsen, two strangers to Pondera. Why have Odell and Olsen come to Pondera? Pearlman is convinced that are part of a gang being put together by Campbell, whose past seems to be catching up with him.
