Coming off the trail, Paladin pulls into a mission seeking a night's rest and ends up helping a man running from a lynch mob.

Arriving in a small Arkansas town Paladin finds Dr. Simeon Loving chained in the street. He is charged with murder and Paladin is pressured into serving as his defense attorney. Elroy Greenleaf, a self-appointed justice of the peace, has decided that Loving will hang unless Paladin can persuade the jury to oppose Greenleaf.