In the summer of 1865, Confederate war veteran Johnny Yuma returns to his small western town. He finds his father, the sheriff, has been killed and the murderers are now running the town. After taking his father's sawed-off shotgun, Yuma concocts a plan that results in the killing of the men who shot his father. Yuma then leaves town, because staying would remind him of his father. He then meets up with the proprietor of a traveling medicine show, who later is framed as a killer by a gang of hoodlums.; After saving the life of an Apache strung up to die as "buzzard bait," Yuma finds the camp of four hard-bitten gold miners whose mules have been killed by Apaches. The miners put Yuma and his his horse to work crushing ore, but the Apaches return to finish their attack.; General overview of the problems old west towns had because they attracted drifters and hoodlums.