Selfish rancher's son Lee is constantly having his misdeeds covered up by his adoptive brother Owen, whom he grows to hate. When Lee gets a woman pregnant, he convinces her furious family that Owen is the father of the child, leaving him in danger of violent reprisals. Western, starring Burt Lancaster, Robert Walker and Joanne Dru.

A cattle baron takes in an orphaned boy and raises him, causing his own son to resent the boy. As they get older the resentment festers into hatred, and eventually the real son frames his stepbrother for fathering an illegitimate child that is actually his, seeing it as an opportunity to get his half-brother out of the way so he can have his father's empire all to himself.