Civil War veteran Luke Fargo (Van Heflin) returns to his home town as a self-ordained minister. Nobody believes his reformation: he is jeered at by Lissy (Joanne Woodward), a gun-toting war orphan; he is pursued by aristocratic Georgina (Allison Hayes), a whip-wielding former flame; and he is welcomed by Selma (Jean Willes), who runs the local gambling hall. Luke fights for his right to be a man of peace and dedicates himself to rebuilding the local church. But will the town accept him as a changed man?