A stagecoach heads into Indian territory carrying a group of desperate people, all prepared to risk death to get to Laramie for their own individual reasons. They are bank robber John Banner (Dale Robertson), a dance hall entertainer Amy Clarke (Linda Darnell), her singing companion Minstrel (Regis Toomey), a prospector (Whit Bissell), a United States Senator Blakely (Ward Bond) and the mysterious Carter Hamilton (John Lund). Attacked by the Cheyenne, and with their stagecoach destroyed, they are forced to take cover in a dried out creek bed battling heat, thirst, and each other as well as the bullets, arrows and knives of the Indians intent on killing them all!