Marshal Frank Patch is an old-fashioned cop in a new-fashioned community in Cottownwood Springs, Texas. The local officials decide it's time for a change when he kills inebriated Luke Mills. That want Patch to quit, but he refuses, claiming the town hired him and promised him the job for life. Fearing for the town's future and Marshal Patch's knowledge of its dark secrets, the city fathers conclude that old-fashioned violence is the best way to get rid of the unwanted lawman.