Steve Warren is the local sheriff and is searching for the outlaw gang that is holding up the stages on the line owned by Nora Reed. He captures one of the gang-members, Frank Reed, Nora's brother and tosses him in jail. Frank's jail-stay is a short one as he is soon murdered. The town's crooked lawyer Garvey Yager and a surveyor named Alfred Murdock conspire to accuse Steve of the killing, and have him arrested and dismissed as the sheriff. Steve escapes and goes after Murdock whom Smiley Burnette had seen near the jail at the time of the murder. Yager and Murdock, actually the leaders behind the outlaw gang, are out to get Steve, whose father had once jailed them elsewhere. Martin Oaks, the newly-appointed sheriff dupes Smiley into capturing Steve. Steve escapes jail again and, in the guise of the Durango Kid, renews the pursuit and capture of Yager and Murdock.