Fact-based bio of early film director-producer, Bill Tilghman (Sam Elliott). Tighman was a real life cowboy, who rode with the Earps & faced down countless bad guys. When he turned to films, he was determined to make authentic Westerns, rather than the fake carrying on of Tom Mix & other Western movie stars of the day. The only problem was that no one wanted to see his non-stars in any story. Arliss Howard co-stars as a cocaine-addled law enforcement nemesis of Tighman, who attempts to stop him at every turn.