Gary cooper, richard widmark and cameron mitchell star as fortune hunters, alongside susan hayward. Three fortune hunters heading for the californian gold rush find themselves stranded in a mexican port. Gary cooper plays hooker, a rootless man of few words. Richard widmark is fiske, a slick gambler with a sardonic sense of humour and cameron mitchell plays daly, an impetuous gunman with a weakness for women. While they pass the time in a cantina watching rita moreno singing and dancing, a beautiful american susan hayward walks in and offers an enormous reward to anyone who can rescue her husband, trapped in a goldmine in hostile apache territory. The three of them, together with a local man, accept and the group ventures on a journey into the remote mountains, beset with tension, lust, jealousy, suspicion and fear.