 Swindler-turned-murderer Stan Warren is on the run from the Highway Patrol and looking to leave the state quickly. He abandons his vehicle near a roadside diner and convinces desert-bound college professors Steve Lamont and Gordon Ryan to permit him to join them. After tying up Ryan, he forces Lamont to use his jeep to drive toward the state line over the rough and little-used desert roads. Dan Mathews uses the Highway Patrol helicopter to locate the moving jeep, get ahead of it, and commandeer a large truck to block the road. Warren is able to wound an officer during a brief gun battle near the stopped truck, but he is unable to escape from Dan Mathews, who fires upon him from the helicopter with a rifle.