When Bubber Reeves (Robert Redford) escapes from the penitentiary after being wrongly convicted of a murder, cattle baron Val Rogers (E.G. Marshall) wants him out of the way in order to cover up a love affair between his son, Jason (James Fox), and Bubber's wife, Anna (Jane Fonda). While Sheriff Calder (Marlon Brando) refuses to let Rogers, or anyone else, tell him how to do his job, his wife, Ruby (Angie Dickinson), tries to persuade him to abandon his efforts to single-handedly fight the entire town. Though Calder finally catches up with Bubber in a junkyard with the help of Anna and her young lover, Jason is killed in an explosion, ending the elder Rogers dreams for the future. Finally, as the sheriff is bringing him back to justice, a drunken mob kills Bubber on the jailhouse steps. And while having lost his prisoner, Calder still manages to leave the unjust town with his wife and his integrity still intact.