When Lawe loses his job as Marshal of Potemkin County he drifts to Los Angeles. Along the way he picks up a hitchhiker named Al Haine. Haine is a storyteller, a gambler (who always wins), an ardent Marxist, and a man who carries a knife strapped to his leg. Lawe has his doubts about Haine's honesty, but needs someone to share expenses and driving. Upon arrival in Los Angeles Lawe takes a job as a stuntman in Gower Gulch, the home of low budget western movies. Haine picks up work at various studios as an extra and helps organize a labor movement among the actors. His union activities get him beaten by union-busting thugs and Lawe comes to his rescue. Tiring of the physical punishment of stunt work, Marshal takes a job in studio security at RKO. He finds that the majority of his work consists of getting actors out of legal scrapes.