When the town's newspaper office is burned to the ground and the owner murdered, suspicion falls on Lane Cutler, the young deputy marshal of Progress. His alibi - that he was being held prisoner by ruffians at the time of the killing - persuades veteran lawman Ben McCabe to go in search of the truth. But the marshal runs into a wall of silence, shored up by blackmail and revenge. And when death strikes again, McCabe must join forces with a stranger before the final showdown...