Tim is the boss of a trail-herding crew consisting of Kentucky, a cook who plays the guitar, Joe, and Marty, a young, impressionable cowhand who longs for the glamorous life of a gunfighter. While the four cowhands sing around the campfire, a night-riding gunfighter named Johnny Laredo happens upon their camp, and joins them for a cup of coffee. He then rides on, leaving Marty wishing he could go with him. In the saloon in Bracketville Johnny Laredo is accosted at the bar by a drunken, young cowboy, Billy Joe. Roxy, the saloon singer, shames Billy Joe by calling him a boy, and in an effort to prove himself a man he draws on Laredo. Laredo is faster and kills him but Laredo’s life is immediately changed as he is revolted at what he had to do. He attends the boy’s funeral where the service is preached and a hymn sung by the circuit-riding Preacher. Laredo rides back to the camp of the trail herders and joins them, knowing his influence can sway Marty away from the life of a gunfighter.