Dan Evans (Van Heflin), a drought-plagued Arizona rancher, volunteers to take captured stagecoach robber and murderer Ben Wade (Glenn Ford) from Bisbee to Contention City, where the criminal will be put aboard the 3:10 train to Yuma for his trial. Accompanied only by the town drunk, Alex Potter (Henry Jones), Dan battles Wade's henchman (Richard Jaeckel), the murder victim's revenge-minded brother, and the temptation of the large bribe Wade offers in exchange for his freedom.