On the outskirts of town, the hard-nosed Vienna owns a saloon frequented by the undesirables of the region, including Dancin' Kid and his gang. Another patron of Vienna's establishment is Johnny Guitar, a former gunslinger and her lover. When a heist is pulled in town that results in a man's death, Emma Small, Vienna's rival, rallies the townsfolk to take revenge on Vienna's saloon – even without proof of her wrongdoing.
San Francisco businessman Harry Graham and his wife and business partner, Eve, are in the process of adopting a child. When private investigator Mr. Jordan uncovers the fact that Graham has another wife, Phyllis, and a small child in Los Angeles, he confesses everything.
Under therapeutic hypnosis, a seemingly well-adjusted young woman tells a fantastic story, verified by lie detector, of her forgotten marriage to a man who disappeared on the day of their honeymoon, and of her search for him which takes her to a lonely mansion in a remote section of swampland tenanted by snakes, alligators, a drunken one-armed lout, a mysterious doctor, and a cold-hearted elderly woman who lives alone in a brooding manse.
