An African American woman has an encounter with a white police officer that leaves him dead. The world watches a media circus real-time hunt for her and the truth.

Lightnin' Bill Williams, the owner of a 50,000-acre ranch near the town of Cactusville, takes a fall off a cliff, and the experience affects him to the extent that he has lost his nerve. Oil promoter Dan Carson and geologist Lional Murphy find large oil deposits under Bill's ranch, and decide to swindle him out of them. Complications ensue.

A stranger joins a girl in saving her ranch from thieves.