Joel McCrea starred as Marshal Mike Dunbar who maintained law and order in Wichita Town, an 1870s Kansas Territory community.

Before his stint as Marshal of Wichita Town, Mike Dunbar was a cattle trail boss. It was only after the town's marshal quit after a band of  rowdy cowboys terrorized the town and killed a boy that Mike decided to step in and reestablish justice in the frontier community.

Other citizens of Wichita Town included:

• Jody McCrea as Deputy Ben Matheson, the foreman of the nearby Circle J Ranch. 
• Carlos Romero as Deputy Rico Rodriguez, a reformed Mexican gunfighter. He originally came to town to investigate the shooting of his nephew Manuel whom Dunbar had befriended.
• Robert Foulk as Joe Kingston, the saloon bartender.
• George Neise as Dr. Nat Wyndha, Wichita's first physician.
• Robert Anderson as Aeneas MacLinahan, the blacksmith.
• Frank Ferguson as Mayor Eric Holbein
• James Coburn as Fletcher
• Cliff Fields as Fields
• John McIntire as Frank Matheson, Ben's father who had deserted his family 12 years earlier.
• John Pickard as Bain
• Charles Seel as Charlie Cruter
• Dave Willock as Quincy
• Suzanne Lloyd as Laura
• Anthony Caruso as Zitto Vizzini, a watchmaker who was pressured by Sicilian mobsters to pay them tribute.
• Gene Evans as Otis Stockett, who came to Wichita looking for a teaching position.