After resigning as marshal of River Bend, Dan Mitchell intends to get married and take up ranching. However, he is pressed into service as a marshal again when the marshal of Grubstake, a gold boomtown, is shot. Mitchell has to keep the peace between miners and "jumpers," who use a technicality in the claim law to take over any claim that hasn't been worked in a week. Complicating matters is Carson, who owns a lake that has water that miners need to process their gold, but refuses to sell them any of it.