The Virginian goes to Honesty, Wyoming to collect $8000 owed the Judge on a crooked cattle deal. The town is owned and run by the corrupt man who owes the money. The fight over the money spills into a murder charge against the Virginian.

The Virginian arrives in Monolith, Arizona to buy cattle from the Landers family but finds himself in the middle of a feud between them and the city marshal Merle Frome and his brother Ben. The Fromes seem overbearing but maybe with a reason.