Dempsey Rae, a cowboy with no clear aim in life, winds up working on a spread with a hard lady owner just arrived from the East. She needs a tough new top hand and uses all her means of persuasion to get Rae to take the job. But he doesn't like the way the other settlers are getting treated and starts to side with them, despite their introduction of the barbed wire he loathes.

A frustrated former big-city journalist now stuck working for an Albuquerque newspaper exploits a story about a man trapped in a cave to revitalize his career, but the situation quickly escalates into an out-of-control media circus.

Unscrupulous movie producer Jonathan Shields (Kirk Douglas) is a child of Hollywood who ruthlessly toils his way to the top of the studio system, discarding movie star Georgia (Lana Turner), director Fred Amiel (Barry Sullivan) and writer James Lee Bartlow (Dick Powell) along the way. Although Shields manipulates them and leaves each in despair, they find success in Hollywood, thanks in part to Shields, and must decide whether or not to repay him when he offers them a collaborative project.

Unfairly imprisoned, Eddie Macon (John Schneider) stages a daring jailbreak and heads south with the intent of reuniting with his wife, Chris (Leah Ayres), and their son in Mexico. No-nonsense veteran cop Carl Marzack (Kirk Douglas) isn't about to let him get away, however, leading to an extended chase throughout Texas and Mexico. Aiding the desperate fugitive, who starts out on foot, is Jilly Buck (Lee Purcell), a wealthy girl looking for a bit of excitement.