Despite threats, blackmail, and other travails brought against him chiefly by an underground school gang (The Hellites), instructor Linus Beem refuses to relinquish his hazardous teacher's job. Meanwhile, he attempts to maintain a home for his invalid mother and retarded brother. He is also determined to provide help he feels his students need in the classroom and elsewhere. His life becomes even more complex when the Hellites leader Al Gonzales is embittered by the loss of his "queen bee," who falls in love with her teacher and competes with his sweetheart for his affection. Meanwhile, Al harasses Beem's tubercular friend, Judson Arnold, and vows to seduce his church-devoted wife. Ever surprising Desert Vendetta climaxes with a double murder at the edge of a wolf-roaming desert on emotions-venting Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 1941.