Katie Elder had four sons. The day she was buried, they all came home to pay their final respects. John (John Wayne), the oldest, the gunslinger, Tom (Dean Martin), the gambler, Matt (Earl Holliman), the quiet one, and Bud (Michael Anderson Jr.) is the youngest. One of the many at the funeral was Mary Gordon (Marhta Hyer), she was dating a young deputy Sheriff Ben Latta (Jeremy Slate) hot headed, has already made up his mind where the Elder boys are concerned. The boys find that their dad, Bass had supposedly lost their big ranch in a game of Black Jack about six months earlier and ironically was murdered the same night. He lost the ranch to Morgan Hastings (James Gregory. They also find out that Katie was broke. The bank was letting her live in an old adobe house when she died.