Belle Ainesly rides into town after 3 years absence. Seems she ran off with an unsavory character 3 years ago, and all of Dodge feels she's a "bad" woman. Belle says she is coming back to stay at the family ranch.

Matt becomes suspicious when drifter Frank Cassidy publicly announces his engagement to spinsterish Beulah Parker immediately after the seemingly unrelated murders of an old prospector and her abusive brother Leroy.

Chester becomes engaged more or less accidentally, but he takes to heart his obligation to his betrothed, leaving his job with Mr. Dillon to devote himself to homesteading a barren quarter section.

All of Dodge City is suffering from a drought. A rainmaker (Guy Raymond) tries to put an end to it before the town's public well, their last source of water, runs dry.