Sheriff Dusty Barnett is prepared for trouble when a traveling theater troupe arrives in Dawson, Arizona, to perform a melodrama, The Phantom Killer. The actors are an eccentric bunch, so Dusty isn't surprised when shooting erupts after one of the actors romances the daughter of the town's doctor. The lawman is shocked when someone wearing a dark, caped costume similar to the one worn by the play's villain robs the stage depot and kills the manager. And when notorious gunfighter Cole Hayes arrives the next day, Dusty learns that Hayes is connected to the troupe and is thrust into a treacherous confrontation with the killer. In the mayhem that follows the murder, the actress playing the ingenue in The Phantom Killer runs off; a young townswoman, Phoebe Martin, creates a town scandal when she takes her place. On top of all that, Sheriff Barnett finds he must also deal with two stagecoach robberies and an angry lynch mob while stalking the mysterious phantom killer, who seems intent on striking again.