Roy Rowland's western stars Ray Milland as Kern Shafter, a cavalry officer reduced to the ranks after a fight with fellow officer Edward Garnett. Ten years after the event, Shafter is assigned to a cavalry outpost in Dakota where Garnett is the commanding officer. Still smarting after his humiliation, Garnett assigns him the most dangerous of scouting duties among the Sioux and Cheyenne tribes and, to complicate matters, they both fall for the same woman, Josephine Carter. As both professional and emotional tensions rise, the action culminates at the Battle of Little Big Horn, where Shafter is sent to scout the enemy's positions while Garnett leads his men into battle alongside Custer