Ray, young and destitute, reaches Desert Spring, carrying a case, his only treasured possession, on top of his mule. De-sert Spring is the only town before the Californian gold mines, and should be rich and prosperous, but a small gang headed by Brady uses apparently legal means to prevent anyone from trading and exploits all the town's possibilities for itself. The only one who dares to protest is Sheila, the daughter of a tra-desman who has been ruined by Brady. She therefore welco-mes Ray, hoping to make him an ally. But the young man doesn't even known how to handle a gun. However, when Brady's men beat him up and humiliate him, Ray decides to stay. He tricks Brady's men and succeeds in bringing goods to Sheila's shop, which finally breaks Brady's monopoly. To eli-minate Ray in a 'legal' way, Brady has him arrested for rob-bery. Ray is imprisoned to await trial, but manages to escape. Expecting that Ray is hiding out there, Brady's gang raids Sheila's house and her father gets killed. They kidnap Sheila, and Brady accuses Ray of these crimes. When Ray comes back to town, with proof of his innocence for the robbery, Sheila has managed to free herself. Warns him that now new charges are being held against him leading to a quick death sentence. Ray and Sheila barricade themselves in the girl's house, and when they are surrounded by Brady's men, Ray decides that it is high time to use the 'treasure' hidden in his case: it is a first rudimental type of machine gun, good enough to wipe out the whole gang.