Clint Eastwood directs, produces and stars in this shot in the arm for the Western genre. A community of gold mining prospectors comes under attack from a gang of marauders, who are after the prospectors' land. Young Megan Wheeler (Sydney Penny) prays for help, which consequently arrives in the form of the Preacher (Eastwood), a grim, silent stranger. The Preacher takes up the community's cause, and sets out to repel the invaders.