
While traveling shortly after the Civil War, Mitch Barrett (Alan Ladd) and his pregnant wife (Rachel Stephens) make an emergency stop at a nearby small town, where she begins feeling intense pain. Unable to cover the $1.87 cost of the medicine, Barrett can do nothing while his wife dies. In an attempt to make up for their inaction, the townsfolk name Barrett deputy sheriff in an act of goodwill. Although Barrett accepts the post, he is far from forgiving of them and begins to plot his revenge.
While traveling shortly after the Civil War, Mitch Barrett (Alan Ladd) and his pregnant wife (Rachel Stephens) make an emergency stop at a nearby small town, where she begins feeling intense pain. Unable to cover the $1.87 cost of the medicine, Barrett can do nothing while his wife dies. In an attempt to make up for their inaction, the townsfolk name Barrett deputy sheriff in an act of goodwill. Although Barrett accepts the post, he is far from forgiving of them and begins to plot his revenge.
Questions arise when Senator Stoddard (James Stewart) attends the funeral of a local man named Tom Doniphon (John Wayne) in a small Western town. Flashing back, we learn Doniphon saved Stoddard, then a lawyer, when he was roughed up by a crew of outlaws terrorizing the town, led by Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin). As the territory's safety hung in the balance, Doniphon and Stoddard, two of the only people standing up to him, proved to be very important, but different, foes to Valance.
Quirt Evans (John Wayne), a cowboy on the run, is injured when his horse stumbles near a Quaker family's land. The family takes him in as he regains his health, and he falls for their young daughter, Penelope (Gail Russell). As Quirt falls deeper in love and becomes accustomed to the family's peaceful ways, his violent past starts to catch up to him. Eventually he is forced to decide whether it is worth letting go of his turbulent former life for his future with Penelope.
The small town of Bottleneck is under the control of Kent (Brian Donlevy), a power-hungry boss who gets control over the local cattle ranchers by winning a rigged game of cards. When the local sheriff questions the legitimacy of the game, Kent has him killed and names the town drunk, Dimsdale (Charles Winninger), as sheriff. What Kent doesn't know is that Dimsdale knows legendary lawman Tom Destry, who in turn sends his daring son Tom Destry Jr. (James Stewart) to Bottleneck to save the day.
Stranger Django (Franco Nero) rides into the middle of a border fray between Mexican bandits and the Ku Klux Klan.
During the 1880s, Martha Price (Maureen O'Hara), a widowed cattle breeder, travels from England to St. Louis with her daughter, Hilary (Juliet Mills). Martha hopes to crossbreed her bull, Vindicator, with American cattle. Martha sells Vindicator to Alexander Bowen (Brian Keith), a wealthy businessman, who hires Sam Burnett (James Stewart) to transport the bulls to Texas. Skeptical of Burnett's intentions, Martha and Hilary decide to accompany him on the trip.
The outlaw brothers (Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash) go from the Civil War to robbing trains to farming under assumed names.
Reformed outlaw Glyn McLyntock (James Stewart) has become a guide for farmers headed to Oregon. When he rescues thief Emerson Cole (Arthur Kennedy) from execution, Cole joins him on the journey. Once the settlers arrive, they discover that a trader who was supposed to send them provisions is now trying to scam them. After McLyntock and Cole travel to Portland to forcibly retrieve the supplies, Cole betrays McLyntock and steals the goods himself. McLyntock pursues, ready for battle.
Aging rancher George Washington McLintock, a wealthy self-made man, is forced to deal with numerous personal and professional problems. Seemingly everyone wants a piece of his enormous farmstead, including high-ranking government men, McLintock's own sons and nearby Native Americans. As McLintock tries to juggle his various adversaries, his wife, who left him two years previously, suddenly returns. But she isn't interested in her husband -- she wants custody of their daughter.