Beau Maverick befriends a prospector named Ebenezer Bolt. Maverick is unaware that Bolt is the partner of notorious horse thief Benson January. An angry posse mistakes Beau for January and is determined to hang him. A young lawyer manages to halt the proceedings until Maverick can have a trial. Beau's conviction seems imminent when the lawyer locates a notorious ""hanging judge"" and a woman whose sister was engaged to January identifies Maverick as the horse thief.