In post Civil War Arizona territory, a former Confederate officer, Hondo Lane, becomes a scout attached to Fort Lowell. Apache are attacking soldiers and settlers. He also meets a pretty young widow and her son.
An Army captain blames Vittoro's people for an attack on a mine committed by renegade Indians.
An Apache is cutting new telegraph wires as soon as they are put up, and Hondo tries to stop him and find out why he is so determined to cut them.
When Hondo meets the surveyor who has come to check for gold at Superstition Mountain, he viciously attacks him -- the man led the raid in which Hondo's wife was killed.
Hondo befriends an Apache prince just as Fort Lowell is visited by a martinet Cavalry general whose by-the-book and show-them-no-mercy approach to the Indians threatens to upend the fragile friendship and peace forged by Hondo.
While under escort of two Army soldiers from the fort to Yuma, Arizona to be tried for murder, the Apache Kid overcomes the soldiers and escapes. Hondo and Buffalo Baker are dispatched to bring the kid in.
When the Cavalry decides to confiscate the guns of the Apache, Chief Vittoro vows to resist. Hondo becomes involved when he encounters unscrupulous weapon dealers.
A trooper holding a grudge against Hondo vows revenge. He takes advantage of a rabies outbreak and Hondo's dog is at risk.
A rebel Colonel, thought to be dead, surprises his comrades by bringing them back together for a final crime. Hondo rejoins the group, unaware of the Colonel's plan to get revenge on whoever ambushed him.
When Angie Dow is kidnapped and held hostage by a band of Hispanic outlaws, Hondo must gather enough money to pay the ransom amount of $3,000 to rescue her.
An aging mayor is convinced by his scheming advisor to participate in a scheme in the founding a never-heard-of town by finding silver in an abandoned silver mine. Unbeknownst to everyone (with the exception of Hondo and Buffalo), the silver mine is located in Native Indian territory. When a local town drunk is found dead and scalped, everyone points at the Indians.
Angie's father-in-law arrives from the East. After learning only half of the truth from Tribolet about how his son was killed, he comes to the false conclusion that Angie and Hondo conspired to kill him, and thus he decides to take Johnny away back East with him. Unfortunately to do this he has allied with some ruthless company.
Hondo is ordered by the government to bring a flock of sheep to Indians on the reservation. On the way Hondo and his companions run into opposition from a local cattle boss and his posse.
Hondo and Buffalo Baker are tasked with escorting a soldier to a town to face a murder charge. A priest was killed and local tempers are high. Along the way, they meet up with Professor Phineas Blackstone, alias of a former prosecutor who convicted an innocent man. A former Confederate colonel leads a lynching party. Can Hondo get the prisoner to court safely?
Hondo takes on the job of protecting a government peace envoy to the Apaches but he's distracted. He's distraught by the abduction of his beloved dog Sam by a scoundrel intent on turning the gentle dog into a pit fighter.
Hondo is escorting the vicious killer Apache Kid to an army post for trial when he escapes. Tracking him, Hondo sees more destruction caused by the murderer and swears to Chief Vittoro that justice will come in the Indian fashion.
Hondo is sent on a mission by the Army to acquire horses but on the way, is robbed of his hat containing gold coins by a local peasant who needs the money to pay off Diablo, (Jack Elam) for protection services.