German boy Emil comes to live with his American uncle who tries to teach the former Hitler Youth to reject Nazism.

When transplanted Texan Bob Seton arrives in Lawrence, Kansas he finds much to like about the place, especially Mary McCloud, daughter of the local banker. Politics is in the air however. It's just prior to the civil war and there is already a sharp division in the Territory as to whether it will remain slave-free. When he gets the opportunity to run for marshal, Seton finds himself running against the respected local schoolteacher, William Cantrell. Not is what it seems however. While acting as the upstanding citizen in public, Cantrell is dangerously ambitious and is prepared to do anything to make his mark, and his fortune, on the Territory. When he loses the race for marshal, he forms a group of raiders who run guns into the territory and rob and terrorize settlers throughout the territory. Eventually donning Confederate uniforms, it is left to Seton and the good citizens of Lawrence to face Cantrell and his raiders in one final clash.

A smooth-talking French thief wangles his way into an important position as prefect of police.

Aided by musicians at the Grand Ole Opry, a small-town mayor in the Ozarks takes on a group of crooked politicians.

Jimmy West abandons his own boxing career to manage Johnny Carlos, a promising fighter who hates boxing. Jimmy fails at his new profession, and as a result of his disappointment with a woman, he turns to homosexual love.

A man waits on death row while his son and friend try to prove that he did not kill a grocer with an ax.