At the end of the Civil War, Frank and Jesse James and other former guerillas who rode with Quantrill and Bill Anderson take the oath of allegiance to the Union. Feeling oppressed by Chicago railroad investors, the James and Younger brothers, Bob and Charlie Ford, Clell Miller and Arch Clements take to robbing banks, trains and coaches, with Pinkerton sworn to bringing them to justice.

After Jesse James is wounded by a bullet to the chest, Frank James splits the gang up and plans a rendezvous in four days time. With U.S.-Marshall Kane in hot pursuit, and betrayal within the outlaw band, the stage is set for a blazing and climactic shootout in the deserted town of ‘Gila Wells’.

Having fought with the Confederacy during the Civil War, Jesse James and his brother Frank dream of a farm life in Missouri. Harassed by Union sympathizers, they assemble a gang of outlaws, robbing trains and becoming folk heroes in the process. Jesse marries his sweetheart, Zee, and maintains an aura of domesticity, but after a group of lawmen launch an attack on his mother’s house, Jesse plans one more great raid — on a Minnesota bank.

Farmer Frank (Henry Fonda) and his ward (Jackie Cooper) hunt brother Jesse’s killers, the back-shooting Fords.

After railroad agents forcibly evict the James family from their family farm, Jesse and Frank turn to banditry for revenge.