Katie Elder bore four sons. The day she was buried, they all came back to Clearwater in Texas to pay their last respects: John, the eldest, a gunslinger; Tom, the gambler; Matt, the quiet one; and Bud, the youngest, still at college. The brothers discover that, in her last days, Katie Elder no longer owned her ranch and died penniless. John learns that Pa Elder supposedly gambled away the ranch when he was drunk - and was killed the same night. The only witnesses were Dave Hastings and his father Morgan. The sheriff warns the Elders to stay out of trouble. But the responsibility they should have shouldered years ago drives them on to find the truth.