When Yance Carter, Andy and Bart, professional killers, murder his father, 13-year-old Johnny Yorke is adopted by Thad Kring, owner of a traveling minstrel show, featuring Sam Cooper as his ace sharpshooter. For the next ten years, while working in the show and becoming an ace sharpshooter with Cooper as his mentor, the adult Johnny maintains a relentless search for Yance, whom he knows only as a big man with a missing finger and a high piercing laugh. In an attempt to find a restraining influence on the revenge-mad Johnny, Thad hires pretty Ann Walker to be Johnny's assistant in his sharp-shooting act, but Johnny's desire for revenge precludes marriage. When Yance, Andy and Bart hold up a train on which the minstrel troupe is traveling, Johnny gives pursuit, despite the pleadings of Ann and Thad. He trails the killers for several months without success, eventually winding up in Silver Springs, where the ministrel show is playing. Johnny agrees to perform his act with the troupe and, during the show, he hears Yance's peculiar laugh coming from the audience.