Teenaged fugitive William Bonney is given a second chance when a kindhearted ranch owner, John Tunstall, offers him a job. Within days, Tunstall becomes a close friend and something of a father figure to young Bonney. But when his new employer is killed in cold blood, Bonney reverts to his criminal ways and vows to seek vengeance. Enraged and once again alone, Bonney faces off with the men who gunned down Tunstall and the bullets begin to fly. Years later, gunfighter-turned-newspaperman Bat Masterson enters the campaign headquarters of congressional candidate Robert Widenmann, who also worked for Tunstall, to find out how a young William Bonney was transformed into the notorious Billy the Kid.