Kit Banion, a Virginia-born beauty and product of post-Civil War chaos, has settled in Wyoming and prospered; acquiring a fortune and a hotel, which, like the owner bears the name of "The Maverick Queen."---a title picked up by Kit in her earlier days in Wyoming when she took every unbranded steer...
When Missouri farm boy Jesse James witnesses the lynching of his father by the Yankees, he forsakes his family's homestead to find his brother Frank, a soldier in Quantrill's Raiders, a renegade band of Confederates. Bent on revenge, Jesse begs to join the raiders.
After conning a potential buyer into believing that Queenie's herd is diseased, nasty would-be empire builder Duke Drake is confronted by the girl's new tough foreman Bill Foster. In retaliation, Drake frames Bill for a stage robbery committed by his own henchmen and arranges a phony trial presided...
Legendary Quick-shot Frank Woods is caught in a shootout and kills three drunks in self-defense. In fear for his life, Frank escapes to the Arizona desert.