Drifter Cole Harden befriends the notorious Judge Roy Bean, a self-appointed hanging judge in Texas.

Harden is about to be hanged by Bean when he spots the judge's obsession with actress and singer Lily Langtry and spins the judge a tale.

The men become friends, even though Harden opposes Bean's mission to drive homesteaders off the land to make it suitable for cattle grazing.

When Harden falls for the daughter of a homesteader, he tries to get the judge to drop his violent ways against them. Show less