Pat Brennan (the rugged Randolph Scott) appears on the horizon, riding into a small station to refuel from his trek through the wilderness. After the station owner's initial suspicion, he recognizes Brennan and the owner's son begins cheerfully pestering the visitor. The boy plays around the station's well and gets Brennan to bring back some candy with him from the nearest town.
When Brennan eventually returns to the station, the candy is taken by robbers, the owner and his son are at the bottom of the well, and "The Tall T" begins to take off. Before this point, the picture has been a cheerful classical western with Scott exhibiting an "aw shucks" attitude not dissimilar from Ronald Reagan's. Brennan has some laughs in town, loses his horse in a contest, and leaves town on foot, looking like a lovable loser. This lighthearted tone is cut short when Brennan and the group that gives him a lift (a newly married couple) encounter bandits who have looted the station and killed its inhabitants.