Jonathan Wiggs, a sardonic Mormon, takes a wagon train of his people to Utah's San Juan Valley with freewheeling cowpokes Travis Blue and Sandy Owens as guides. En route, the group comes upon a medicine show troupe, run by Dr. A. Locksley Hall that is heavily under the influence of its product and out of water, and they too become part of the caravan. As the trek continues, the Mormons also begin to run low on water, which is less of a problem than a meeting with the murderous Clegg family, led by the unctuous Uncle Shiloh, who claims that he and his five "boys" are simple cowhands. To avoid violence, Wiggs allows them to join the convoy but regrets it when the medicine troupe attempts to leave the wagon train and is stopped at gunpoint by the Cleggs.