In a truly outstanding performance, Richard Boone stars as Sergeant Bill Disher, a 26 year cavalry veteran driven to breaking point when his close friend Little Tom is killed in an accident. Grieving over the death of his military comrade, Disher bitterly blames the modernisation and expansion of the West as being the cause of Little Tom's fate. During a drunken wake, Disher burns down Cimarron's funeral parlour, angering the townspeople who seek vigilantly justice. This forces the hand of Marshal Crown who must bring Disher's military career to an end... one way or another.