AllMovie

During a stopover in Wyoming, Paladin saves the life of Sheriff Owen Deaver (James Olson)--only to be arrested by Deaver for gunfighting in public. Paladin soon learns that the idealistic young sheriff is the son of an old friend, a legendary lawman. Educated in Philadelphia, Owen Deaver has returned to the west determine to rigidly adhere to the letter of the law as prescribed in the five law books which he has displayed in his office. Although Deaver's one-size-fits-all approach is effective, it has alienated him from everybody in town--including his own mother (Lurene Tuttle). It falls to Paladin to prove to the well-meaning but misguided Deaver that the administration of justice must sometimes be tempered with mercy...and common sense.