Outlaw Ben Wade (Glenn Ford) is captured after robbing a stagecoach. The owner of the stage coach line decides to offer $200 to the man who escorts Ben Wade to the 3:10 train to Yuma which will take him to trial. The train will be traveling out of the station at a small town aplty named Contention. It is necessary to offer the reward because everyone knows that Ben Wade's gang will attempt to free their boss and kill anyone in the way. The man who volunteers is a rancher named Dan Evans (Van Heflin). Evans is flat broke and in desperate need of money to feed his family and keep his cattle. When Dan Evans and Ben Wade begin their journey together, it becomes apparent that each man has his own brand of honor that means more than life to them. Eventually Evans and Wade become stuck in a hotel while Wade's gang lays seige to it. How will each of the men's sense of honor effect how the story turns out? This film is a suspenseful cat and mouse game where the viewer is as likely to root for the complex and charming outlaw as they are to root for the honest and forthright rancher. The suspense is palpable and the underlying questions of humanity and values propel this movie above a simple western action film.