Los compasivos habitantes de Hemingford descubren los cuerpos de la masacre de Gatlin, y adoptan a los traumatizados supervivientes de la tragedia. Entre los periodistas que acuden al escenario del macabro descubrimiento, se encuentra un reportero dispuesto a obtener una primicia. Su hijo adolescente, con quien mantiene relaciones muy tensas, se transforma en fácil objetivo de Los Chicos del Maíz, que siguen atrayendo nuevos miembros a su culto diabólico. Mientras, desaparecen adultos o mueren en espantosos accidentes. Una incontrolable histeria se adueña de la ciudad. Algo mucho más allá del entendimiento humano está sucediendo...
U.S. Marshal Rocky Lane (Allan Lane) arrives to help his friend Nugget (Eddy Waller) whose shipments are being robbed. Learning the gang only goes for incoming shipments, he figures they are repacking the loot and having Nugget ship it out. So he hijacks the next outgoing shipment finding a box labeled tools contains gold bars. Then posing as an outlaw he makes a deal with the gang hoping to round them up. But the boss learns he is a Marshal and he is made a prisoner.
Cattle buyer Rex Allen rides into Taskerville and sees two men toss Slim Pickens, a water diviner hired by the local ranchers, into a wagon. Rex chases the wagon to the barn of rancher Lem Shaver, where he learns from Slim that Russ Tasker, a wealthy rancher and owner of the only artesian-fed reservoir in the valley, has charged such high prices for water that the ranchers are bankrupt. Tasker's henchmen kill rancher Matt Becker and have his son Johnny branded as an outlaw. Rex learns that the Beckers had found a meager water supply and Rex suspects that is what led to the killing and the charges against Johnny. With the aid of Slim and Johnny's sweetheart, Sue, Rex finds that the Becker spring is fed from the same underground lake that feeds Tasker's well-guarded reservoir. But Rex is jailed for aiding Johnny.
Tras la Segunda Guerra Mundial (1939-1945), los soldados supervivientes, algunos con taras físicas, regresan a los Estados Unidos. Aunque al principio se les trata como héroes, poco tiempo después comienzan a verse marginados.
