Outlaws plan a robbery to take place during a championship prizefight in Carson City, Nevada.

Communists blackmail a shipping executive into spying for them.

Ex-lumberjack Brad Collins and mining engineer Grady Mathews find uranium in the Colorado badlands. While Grady guards the claim, Brad goes to register it in town, where he meets and marries Jean Williams. Returning to the claim, Brad learns that Jean was once Grady's fiancée. Grady, as one would expect, is somewhat put out and leaves the mine in Brad's hands, while he hooks up with a confidence man and engineers a scheme to break the back of Brad's somewhat rapidly-created mining empire.

A tough and realistic crime drama unfolds as merciless kidnapper Jerry Barker (Ralph Meeker) demands ransom paid against a young runaway whose fate lands Barker in Casabel Island Prison.

A mysterious stranger crosses paths with an outlaw bank robber and a greedy rancher.