Sam Flint is a dedicated frontier journalist whose only weapon is the truth. But when he pulls into Silver City to set up his crusading weekly newspaper, he fears he's made a mistake. The over-populated town is being run into the ground by the corrupt editor of the Silver City Democrat, Digby Westminster. A friend of merchants and flatterer of politicians, the manipulative scoundrel has grown fat ridiculing the miners and working girls while making sure they are ruthlessly taxed into destitution.

Flint believes strongly that an honest journalist must challenge the Democrat. But how can he launch his own paper when the whole town is in his rival's pocket?