Jessica attends the burial of Wyoming rancher Jack Carver with his family and fellow veteran friends. Family lawyer Sam Breen announces he died without finalizing his will, which would provide the sale of the ranch to his brother Tim Carver, so only daughter Mary inherits everything. Then turns up Carl Mestin, with his cheap tomcat wife Sally, waving a will making him general heir. He lies about saving Jack's life in Korea, and after a stormy night when the men went out to check the property he's found hanging in the barn. Gun-obsessed John Wayne-wannabe and useless sheriff 'marshall' Ed Potts arrests Mary's fiancé Art Merrick without any proof, so Jessica investigates, sets Art free and digs up the past about the will and a dark secret.
Clu Gulager is excellent as the villain here, a man who has the deed to take over the ranch of a dead man's daughter, and of course he dies via a blunt instrument to the back of the head and rope. There's a few suspects, one of them being William Windom, who later went to play Dr Hazlitt. Here is a lawyer. Kathleen Beller, a real beauty, also stars. It's a cracking mystery which holds it card close to its chest till the last reel.