After making another successful bank robbery, the Stark gang finds part of their plan was not accomplished as expected, and Marshall Dillon returns to Dodge before the gang can get away. An undercover member of the gang surreptitiously sets the town afire which affords the gang time to escape, and he also kidnaps Doc to attend to one of the wounded gang members. After the town deals with the fire, Dillon forms a posse to go after the gang which has been able to keep a step ahead of Dillon thus far. As the chase progresses, we see what was an originally well knit gang begin to dissolve. The various shortcomings of the individual gang members begin to eat away at the mortar that holds the gang together, and slowly the gang begins to come apart allowing their advantage to also crumble away.
—David Wile