Carl Steiger is orphaned at about the age of ten after spending his early life in an isolated ranch in the Big Thicket country of East Texas. His father, Gustav (a German immigrant), and his mother, Little Hands (a member of the dwindling Alabama Indian tribe), are killed by renegades. The raiders burn the Steiger homestead and steal all the stock on the ranch, including Steiger's favorite - a Palomino foal with three white stockings. The fiercely independent boy takes to the trails as a young Indian might and is later befriended and adopted by Jed Barrette. Steiger learns the horse whisperer's trade from Barrette and the pair sells horses to the US Army. When the Civil War begins, Steiger joins the Union Cavalry. He survives the terrors of war only to return to his home and find his birthright in the form of his father's ranch, has been sold for back taxes to a land grabbing timber company. Steiger wins back his inheritance with the help of friends and the love of a hardy frontier girl but does so thinking the owners of the timber company are his enemies. During the struggle to regain his ranch, Steiger conceals by omission that he was a veteran of the US Army and not a former Confederate. This fact and a startling series of events involving his adoptive father, Jed Barrette, combine to create a surprise ending which results in a resoundingly satisfactory resolution of all his conflicts.