Plot

A badly injured fugitive explains to a priest how he came to be in his present predicament.

Badly injured and hunted by the police, Lin Vanner takes refuge in a priest's home, and tells him what has happened. When Vanner was working in a Mexican oil field, he captured a man who was suspected of a payroll robbery, but then felt responsible when the man died in police custody. As a result of the incident, Vanner's fiancée broke off their engagement, and he resigned from his job. He later felt compelled to visit the dead man's widow, and ended up working on her ranch. But, as he now explains to the priest, the past has quickly caught up with him.—Snow Leopard

Running from the Law, and with a badly injured arm, Lin Vanner (Lew Ayres) takes refuge in a priests' home and tells him how and why he has ended up in this condition. It turns out that Vanner was working as an oil man when the company payroll was stolen. After a posse heads out the wrong way in pursuit of a suspect Vanner reasons that the criminal may be heading in a different direction. He heads out after him, but not knowing his identity shoots who he believes is the crook, Sam Tevlin (Edwin Rand) who claims he did not steal the money. When Tevlin is severely questioned by the company owner Mahoney (Barry Kelley), and dies Vanner is stricken with guilt, resigns and goes to a nearby town to take a job as a cattle rancher. When Vanner discovers that the ranch owner he is working for is Ellen Tevlin (Teresa Wright), the widow of the man he shot and killed, his first impulse is to run, but Vanner is compelled by his curiosity as to why Sam may have committed the crime. Ellen's good nature changes to cruelty when she discovers that Vanner was the man who killed her husband. When Vanner confesses his uncertainty about Sam's guilt, Ellen confesses that they were an estranged couple and this allows the two to fall in love. Vanner is compelled to discover the truth about Sam's involvement in the company robbery and after investigation discovers the real criminal and accidentally kills him attempting to bring him to justice and causing the police to pursue him to the priest's home.