When U.S. Marshal Piedmont Kelly is asked by Cochise Sheriff John Henry Stevens to look into the suspicious activity of three unsavory bounty hunters, he rides into what looks like a battle's aftermath, with bullet holes riddling a ranch house, but no sign of those engaged in the gunplay. Kelly finds nothing to indicate that the mysterious rancher living there fit the description of the bounty hunters' quarry, either. Kelly sets out to locate the missing man. Enlisting the tracking skills of his old friend Spotted Dog -- the Chiricahua Apache whose life he once saved -- they follow four horses from the rancher's house all the way to Desert Belle, a dusty town that holds grim memories for Kelly. They ride straight into a deadly game where $50,000, several lives, and the survival of the Gilded Lily mine are at stake.