Douglas stars as a dashing, best-selling novelist who is even better at playing the ponies and chasing the women than he is at writing. His new wife, who happens to be his ex-secretary has written a best seller that's even bigger than his.

Hoppy and his two side-kicks ride to Gunsight looking for rustled cattle and find themselves involved with Belle Langtry's mob, who are trying to destroy the town newspaper.

When a California businessman shows up at the San Francisco police station to report a murder, the police captain asks him who was murdered. His reply: 'I was.' So begins the tale of a man who is poisoned at a dark jazz club and, with only hours left to live, is determined to find out who poisoned him and why.