The feisty, domineering cattle baron Matt Devereaux (Spencer Tracy) rules his vast empire with a ruthless hand. Because Matt's greatest love is for his Indian wife, Princess (Katy Jurado) and their son Joe (Robert Wagner), Matt's three sons from a previous marriage deeply resent them. After Joe agrees to go to jail for a crime his father commits, he returns three years later to a different world; his father has died and his vengeful brothers control the land.