Tall, serious-faced Mitt Stone runs away from the ranch and takes a freighting job from Uvalde to the West. He is determined to find his buddy Bob Guthrie on the road. At Fort Davis he meets Lydia Lorrain. On the return he clashes with the Comanches. He and Bob find a niche: buying mules cheap and selling them to the stage and freight line, but the Civil War has destroyed currency and the draft looms. In San Antonio Mitt's brother Sam converts their paper to gold. With their pal M.L. Carter they strike out for Mexico only to be robbed by thieving, murdering Confederate Captain Richard Matlock. Mitt returns from the war fully a man. Two passions drive him: revenge on Matlock and the longing to gain Lydia's favor. Finding Lydia seems too easy at first. Now he must risk her life and his entire family to face Matlock.