Harrison Destry, a man who thinks he is better than anyone else and is constantly proving it by his skill with a gun, and his ability to win fistfights he provokes, has just lost his horse and his saddle in a card game. He has few friends and many enemies (most of whom he created) in his home town of Wham, Texas. But the teenage Charlotte Dangerfield, the daughter of a wealthy rancher, adores him.

Only one of the men Destry has beaten in a fight, Chester Bent, seems to bear him no ill-will; Bent stakes the penniless Destry $100. But Bent has just robbed the Express, and when the wind blows Destry’s jacket open, slips cash from the robbery into Destry’s pocket. Knowing Destry’s character, Bent expects he will waste the money on liquor and gambling, rather than replacing his horse and saddle. This is indeed what happens, and Destry becomes the prime suspect, the planted cash being all but proof of his guilt.

Wrongly convicted, Destry swears his revenge…