Chief Yellow Shirt and cowboy Sam Glass find themselves in a battle for life and death due to the prejudices they hold and circumstances they inhabit. Though both sympathetic characters, in seem unlikely both can survive this battle.
Telling the story of his early life in flashback, a former prospector (Joel McCrea, with flashback sequences featuring son Jody) explains his brutal massacre of a tribe of Indians. The only survivor (Marie Gahua) agrees to lead him to a secret gold mine.