The Jewel Land Company of Elko, Texas is selling Government land to settlers. Before any of the settlers can claim their land, they are being killed by McCabe's gang.
In postwar Vienna, Austria, Holly Martins, a writer of pulp Westerns, arrives penniless as a guest of his childhood chum Harry Lime, only to learn he has died.
Young Viscount Tony Pym wangles National Service leave on the pretext of standing as a Tory candidate for a local seat held by his family for generations.
Jack Garrett interrupts a stagecoach holdup where he meets Fuzzy (The town's stagecoach driver, station agent, baggage agent, and sheriff) and banker Jim Thorn.