An outlaw gang intent on robbing Dodge's bank plants an attractive mole named Bess (Fay Spain) in a small billiards parlor. Swayed by Bess' beauty and charm, Chester fails to recognize the incongruity of a female hostess in such a place and doesn't notice at least one verbal clue Bess drops inadvertently.
Chester meets Bess in the humorous opening scene. An ostensibly busy Doc tries to squeeze in a quick game with a distracted Chester but eventually leaves in frustration-which Chester doesn't seem to notice for a while. Chester does, however, keep noticing Bess and takes on the task of showing her around the town. This greatly eases her job of gathering info for the gang.
The leader of the gang eventually sends a note requesting Marshal Dillon's presence at a certain farmhouse. A duty-pressed Dillon sends Chester in his stead, much to the chagrin of the gang. Nonetheless, they share their demands with Chester: Marshal Dillon must leave town, which will allow them to rob the bank, or the gang will begin killing a man a day-starting with "unimportant" people while moving up the ladder toward the marshal's closest friends.
Chester soon realizes the gang has considerable intel on the denizens of Dodge. A menacing Grice (Leonard Nimoy) makes this clear in chilling fashion when he says how much he would personally like to kill Chester after he makes threats toward Kitty and Doc.
Marshal Dillon assigns bodyguards to the stubborn Kitty and irascible Doc, who both try to refuse any protection. But the marshal's orders are firm and the bodyguards are so dedicated to the task and feel so obligated to their friends that they won't even accept the three dollars per day offered as a wage. Nonetheless, tension builds as men die and the lovely Ana (Ann Morell) is accosted by one of the vulgar killers, who forces Ana to serve him supper after four members of the gang murder a worker on the farm where she lives.
While the pressure mounts and the gang's confidence increases, Dillon gathers his own intel and devises a plan to unravel the killers' brutal scheme. The plan includes subterfuge common in an episode of Gunsmoke, so common it perhaps gets taken for granted sometimes. Regardless, it's an essential plot twist in this episode. But none of it happens without Dillon's willingness to carefully study and ability to clearly understand the motivation of the criminal(s) in each particular case.
This episode features a tremendous cast that doesn't disappoint. The exchange at the end between Dillon and Bess is particularly compelling. It is not only wonderful acting but also a great piece of psychological warfare. As so often happens in an episode of Gunsmoke, a particularly ruthless, diabolic, greedy, arrogant, or otherwise repulsive antagonist is not merely defeated; the adversary is ripped into shreds by the inertia of reaching too far or too fast or in the wrong direction.
