Tension at Table Rock

It's the post-Civil War American west. Gunslinger Wes Tancred has just been pardoned for killing who was his partner and purported best friend, fellow gunslinger Sam Older. The pardon is not only that it is determined that he killed Sam in self-defense, but that Sam was wanted for crimes including murder for which there was a reward for his capture, the money which Wes chooses not to collect. However, rumors become widespread based on the rantings of Sam's wife, Cathy Older, about Wes shooting Sam in the back and thus not in self-defense, those rantings solely stemming from Wes spurning her advances and the rumors immortalized in a denigrating song. Wes wants to escape from this past in using the assumed name John Bailey in his travels. Due to circumstances, he stops in the town of Table Rock, where he befriends adolescent Jody Burrows, who ends up idolizing him, and Jody's aunt and uncle, Lorna and Fred Miller, the town sheriff. Fred has been facing problems with cowboys coming through town on cattle drives, they not only causing havoc while in town but running roughshod over farmers who have tried to prevent them from accessing their properties for the drive, they turning to violence if they don't get their way. The majority in town do not appreciate the antics of the cowboys (who does not include the saloon keeper, Mr. Kirk, who sees the cowboys as his bread and butter) and look to Fred to do something about the problems, his ineffectiveness of doing anything which some see as cowardice. As things escalate with Mr. Hampton and his cowboys coming through town on the latest cattle drive, Wes may not be able to run from either his past or the effects of the rumors about "Wes Tancred".