服完兵役后，沃尔特·古利克在一家健身房找到了一份陪练的工作，健身房的老板看到了沃尔特作为职业拳击手的潜力，并将他置于自己的庇护之下。

In the mid-19th century, Senator William J. Tadlock leads a group of settlers overland in a quest to start a new settlement in the Western US. Tadlock is a highly principled and demanding taskmaster who is as hard on himself as he is on those who have joined his wagon train. He clashes with one of the new settlers, Lije Evans, who doesn't quite appreciate Tadlock's ways. Along the way, the families must face death and heartbreak and a sampling of frontier justice when one of them accidentally kills a young Indian boy.