Former gunslinger, Emmett (Scott Glenn), just released from prison for a crime he didn’t commit, has every intention of going straight and starting a new life for himself in California. Just one quick swing through the outpost town of Silverado to visit his sister, Kate (Patricia Gaul), and he’ll be on his way. But things don’t go quite as Emmett had planned. When he learns that his brother, Jake (Kevin Costner), is in jail awaiting hanging on a trumped-up charge, Emmett teams up with fellow former outlaw Paden (Kevin Kline) to rectify the situation. Things don’t get much better when they reach Silverado. There, they discover that a former associate of Paden’s named Cobb (Brian Dennehy) has managed to become town sheriff and is on the payroll of corrupt local rancher McKendrick (Ray Baker), a man not only responsible for Emmett’s undeserved prison term but also behind vicious plans to steal the land of every Silverado homesteader and make it his own. Emmett, Jake and Paden join forces with Malachi ‘Mal’ Johnson (Danny Glover), whose own father, Ezra (Joe Seneca), was gunned down by McKendrick’s men, to rid the town of its bad influence once and for all and restore tranquility to Silverado.