Invitation to a Gunfighter

Matt Weaver returns home after the Civil War to a changed town. He finds Brewster has sold his farm and Ruth has married someone else. The upheaval signals a personal battle over property, memory, and loyalty.

Brewster exploits the town's prejudices, using racism and corrupt methods to cement his control while Weaver is away. The town's leaders and ordinary folk indulge a hypocritical loyalty that hides deeper social fissures. This manipulation sets the stage for looming violence.

Weaver confronts the new owners of the land and retakes the farm through force, sparking tragedy when the husband on the property dies during the confrontation. The act exposes the town's complicity and the fragility of law and order.

Weaver finds unexpected support among the town's Mexican residents, who have longstanding ties to him and provide aid as tensions rise. Their backing highlights the town's racial and cultural fault lines.

With opponents closing in, Brewster funds a hired gunfighter to remove Weaver and preserve his grip on the community. The threat of violence escalates the stakes for everyone in the town.

A creole French gunman named Jules Gaspard d'Estaing arrives at a stagecoach stop and soon takes notice of Ruth and Weaver's predicament. His refined bearing contrasts with the town's prejudices and hints at a different form of justice.

Jules begins to seek understanding of the town's hatred toward Weaver, using civility and curiosity to win some townspeople. He starts to see the deeper social flaws driving the conflict.

Jules falls for Ruth but she rejects him, choosing to stay with Weaver. The romance creates tension and complicates his mission as retribution shifts to something more personal.

Disillusioned, Jules begins to target the town's businesses that symbolize its corruption, acting on his sense of justice and his own code. The townspeople watch as his personal crusade unsettles the status quo.

Brewster proposes a peace by returning Weaver's deed to the farm and ending the conflict, but this peace hinges on Weaver confronting the gunfighter. Weaver hesitates, then agrees, hoping to spare Ruth and the town further bloodshed.

Brewster uses Ruth to bait Weaver, claiming Jules is alone with her, and Weaver joins a fragile alliance with the town to pursue Jules. The uneasy pact sets the stage for the final confrontation.

Weaver and Jules face off in a tense stand-off as Brewster lurks, aiming to shoot Jules and protect his own schemes. The moment reveals Jules's true purpose as justice and atonement.

During the gunfight, Jules is mortally wounded but forces Brewster to kneel and confess his crimes before dying. Weaver then shoots Brewster to end his tyranny, sealing Jules's act of retribution.

The town buries Jules, and Ruth and Weaver join hands as they move forward together. The community begins to heal, symbolically uniting whites and Mexicans in a shared act of justice.