In Bottleneck, Frank Dawson is killed by his double-crossing partner Pete Lambert, Paul Kelly, leaving a young girl fatherless. For the next 15 years, she lives in orphanages and works for the Fontaines, originally from Paris, earning the nickname Frenchie Fontaine, Shelley Winters. Now grown, she makes a fortune running a casino in New Orleans, then returns to Bottleneck to find her father's killer. She buys the Scarlet Angel casino but learns that sheriff Tom Banning, Joel McCrea, has brought order to the town, forcing gamblers to nearby Chuckaluck, where the man in charge is Lambert. Frenchie finds Lance Cole, a man who had helped her in New Orleans, and asks him to come to Bottleneck to run the Scarlet Angel with her, John Russell. Lambert's gambling interests are threatened, so he plans to ambush Cole's stage. Banning intervenes and prevents bloodshed. Cole is in love with Frenchie and is suspicious Banning may be in love with her as well. Diane Gorman, Marie Windsor, is jealous. To exact revenge, she marries rich banker Clyde Gorman, John Emery, for his money and then incites the Bottleneck townspeople to expel Frenchie and her crew. When Banning sees Frenchie visiting her father's grave, he guesses she is Dawson's daughter. He rides to Chuckaluck to prevent trouble, but Lambert tries to shoot him. The men of Bottleneck who want to repel Frenchie head for the hills when she lies to them about a gold discovery there. Diane declares her love to Banning, who rejects her. Diane visits the Scarlet Angel to confront Frenchie and divulges that her husband is Lambert's silent partner and is working against her. The women fight, but Tom separates them. Frenchie now knows the identities of the two men who murdered her father. When she decides against vengeance, Cole figures that she will not kill Gorman because that would make Diane a widow and free to be with Tom. An unknown figure shoots Gorman in the back. Banning is accused and locked in his own jail. Frenchie organizes a jailbreak, but Tom is suspicious because he thinks that Frenchie could be orchestrating a setup that will end in his death at the hands of a posse. Lambert and his men ride to Bottleneck to take Frenchie's casino by force. Tom is inside and tells Lambert that he is there to negotiate the sale of the casino. Lambert goes inside, and Tom tells him that he is arresting him for the murder of Frank Dawson. Lambert draws his gun and Tom kills him in self-defense. When things look bleak for him, Diane confesses that it was she who killed her husband. Tom assumes that Frenchie will leave town now, but Frenchie goes into a cell, closes the door and discards the key, letting Tom know that she does not intend to go anywhere.
