Graham Dorsey (Charles Bronson) has a nightmare on the eve of his planned bank heist and envisions his gang getting shot. On the day of the robbery, Graham’s gang approaches the isolated gothic mansion of an attractive wealthy widow named Amanda Starbuck (Jill Ireland, Bronson’s wife). Attracted to Amanda and frightened by his dream, the second-rate outlaw remains behind while his gang goes into town and he cons his way into romancing the widow during the afternoon hours. When Graham leaves her to join the gang, it’s discovered the gang was wiped out. The town assumes Graham was also killed. Amanda reveals to the town that Graham was her lover and tells her story to a journalist, who helps her write a dime store novel. Graham becomes a legendary outlaw, as the public buys into the romance story between a respectable widow and a dangerous outlaw. The enterprising Amanda turns the brief fling into a moneymaking tourist attraction as visitors pay to take tours of her house and view the memorabilia, as Graham is falsely built into a legendary frontier figure the equal of Jesse James. The very much alive Graham returns to town and is jailed, but is not recognized–not even by Amanda.