When two gunmen, Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch, arrive in Appaloosa they find a small, dusty and lawless town suffering at the hands of renegade rancher Randall Bragg.

Bragg has not only taken supplies, horses, and women for his own, but also has left the city marshal and a deputy for dead. In Bragg they find an unusually wily adversary who raises the stakes by playing with emotions.

It is now up to Cole and Hitch to stand against the actions of the renegade rancher, which have already taken their toll on the town.