Jory is a fifteen-year-old boy who joins a horse-drive after his father is killed by a drunkard. The drive's leader and a likable cowhand take the boy under their wing, and find that tragedy has taught him how to take care of himself better than anyone could expect. Jory proves his new found manhood in the finale's thundering stampede and shootout.
With the Civil War about to begin, Southern saboteurs attack frontier railroad construction.
While the wagon train forges ahead, a few people stay behind to repair a disabled rifle-filled wagon but they have to contend with one another's ego and with aggressive Comanches who demand the rifles as payment for safe passage.