Doc

Doc Holliday and Kate Elder meet at a roadside saloon en route to Tombstone. Doc defeats Ike Clanton in a game of Five Card Stud, winning Kate for the night. The next day, they depart together as Doc explains he hopes to reconnect with his old friend Wyatt Earp, then deputy marshal and running for sheriff.

Upon reaching Tombstone, Doc and Kate go their separate ways: Kate to work at a brothel, and Doc back to the gambling tables. Wyatt Earp arrives and tells Doc that if he becomes sheriff, Doc could run the town's gambling operations and help them get rich together.

That night, Wyatt pistol-whips Ike Clanton and throws him out of the saloon, asserting his authority in town. This displays Wyatt's willingness to take decisive action and marks the start of a tense power struggle with the Cowboys.

Doc becomes smitten with Kate and arranges to fetch her from the brothel for a night with him at the hotel. He proclaims he is retiring her from the brothel life and brings her gifts the next day. The couple soon moves into a house Doc rents.

Doc and Kate move into a house Doc rents, establishing a domestic arrangement as they continue to navigate Wyatt Earp's rising influence and the mounting tensions in Tombstone.

A stagecoach robbery leads Wyatt and Doc to the Clanton Ranch in search of Johnny Ringo, whom Wyatt believes committed the crime. The Clantons are prepared and draw weapons on them, and Ike Clanton challenges Wyatt, who is briefly bested. Defeated, Wyatt vows to kill the Clantons.

Wyatt decides to offer Ike the reward money for the stagecoach robbery in exchange for Ike delivering Ringo. Wyatt believes solving the robbery could help him secure an election victory over Johnny Behan.

Once Wyatt becomes the sheriff, he and his ally face fierce resistance from the Clanton family due to the failed reward money arrangement. The Cowboys include Ike Clanton, Tom and Frank McLaury, and Billy Claiborne.

Doc Holliday trains the Kid in pistol shooting, passing along his experience and confidence with firearms. This bond adds tension as both men prepare for the escalating clashes with the Cowboys.

The story reveals Doc Holliday's past: after the Civil War, he left Atlanta and traveled to Richmond, Virginia and then to Baltimore, Maryland, to become a dentist. This backstory explains his health issues and the roots of his move westward.

Seeking a drier climate to cure his tuberculosis, Doc travels west, visiting a Chinese healer for herbs. Along the way, he at times uses laudanum to cope with pain and illness.

The climactic OK Corral gunfight erupts during a fiesta. Virgil Earp, Wyatt Earp, and Doc Holliday all survive the deadly exchange, while Ike Clanton, Tom and Frank McLaury, Billy Claiborne, and Morgan Earp die.

In the aftermath, the trio survives the gunfight and continues their lives under ongoing tensions in Tombstone. The loss of the Cowboys reshapes the town and cements the trio's uneasy alliance as legends of the era.