Marshal Frank Patch is an old-fashioned lawman in the turn-of-the-century Texas town of Cottownwood Springs. When he kills an inebriated Luke Mills in self-defense, the town officials decide it is time for a change. Patch refuses to retire on the grounds that the town offered him the job for as long as he desired. Afraid for the town's future and even more so of Marshal Patch's knowledge of the town's dark secrets, the city fathers conclude that old-fashioned violence is the only way to get rid of the unwanted lawman.