Gambler-on-the-run James Wylie (Dennis Morgan) knows a good deal when he sees one. So when he's offered his freedom in exchange for capturing the holdup man known as the Poet, Wylie heads to Cheyenne, where the bandit's said to be forming a gang. Posing as the outlaw, he meets up with the Poet's wife (Jane Wyman), who also claims to want him arrested. But when she warns her husband the law's closing in, the desperado (Bruce Bennett) plans to outwit them both by ditching his bride for a dancehall girl (Janis Paige) and having Wylie lynched in his place.