Chronicles a cattle drive in the nineteenth century from Texas to Montana, and follows the lives of Gus and Call, the cowboys heading the drive, Gus's woman Lorena, and Blue Duck, an American Indian renegade.

When a rancher is deserted by his ranch hands because of a gold rush, Wil Andersen is forced to take on a collection of young boys as his drivers in order to cross the 400 treacherous miles to get his herd to market in time to avoid financial disaster. The boys learn to do a man's job under Andersen's tutelage, however, neither Andersen nor the boys are aware that a gang of cattle thieves is stalking them.