At the end of a long cattle drive, Joe Sample runs into a little bad luck. A cantankerous steer pins him against a fence post, breaking his leg. So, Joe is laid up in the infamous Dog Stain Hotel next to Yuma pen. His money and the management's patience has run out when the door of the hotel restaurant bursts open and a wild-eyed man named Pierce Malloy walks in, his boot leaking blood. Malloy wants Joe to find a buried cache of money and give it to Tess Malloy whose husband had been hanged that morning. What choice does Joe have, being broke and about to be evicted? He had accepted a little traveling money minutes before prison police arrive and gun Malloy down. With the money and a map to the treasure, Joe starts out to fulfil his promise to the dying man. Things do not turn out as planned however; the map leads him in to a nest of thieves and an earthly hell.