It's 1926 and drifter Ted Beaubien gets mixed up in a deadly mission during the Chinese Civil War. After his girlfriend is executed, he vows to get revenge by becoming a gunrunner. In search of the necessary artillery, he returns to his hometown where he makes a deal to buy guns from some treacherous gangsters. Desperate to raise the gun money, Ted enters into a highly dangerous bootlegging mission that culminates in a bloody ambush. Ted survives, only to discover that he has been betrayed.