Older lawman Marshal Flagg (Robert Mitchum) is struggling to transition from the Old West to the more modernized one — so much so that Mayor Wilker (Martin Balsam) forces him into retirement. Not one to go away easily, Flagg quickly fixates on his old nemesis, McKay (George Kennedy), formerly believed to be dead, who is now back in town and up to no good. But Flagg soon discovers that McKay might be his greatest ally in a fight to prove that the old-timers aren’t useless in the New West.