Uncle died, young Iowan Ernest Selby inherits the ranch in Arizona, where twenty thousand cattle have become only six thousand. To investigate, Ernest goes undercover, hiring on at his own ranch, as a greenhorn dude. He makes allies, enemies, and courts the thief foreman's daughter, Anne Hepford. Selby takes to cowboy life, persists in his investigation, and befriends Miss Hepford in her distress.; Elfego Baca makes citizen's arrest of cowboy McCarty for shooting up the place, locks him in the jail at Frisco, New Mexico. foreman Perham of the Slaughter ranch where McCarty is a hand, demands his release. Baca refuses. A mob of eighty cowboys and ranchers ride on the little Latin-American settlement. Baca insists on taking the prisoner to the county seat in Soccoro, the mob lays siege a mud-plastered jacal, or shack, where Baca takes refuge. The thirty-three hour siege of bullets leaves Baca unharmed. Baca is twice acquitted of the shooting incident, and becomes a well-known lawyer.