The Rivers
In 1829, Zebulon Prescott takes his wife Rebecca and their two
young sons and two daughters away from their New England farm and
heads west on a raft down the Ohio River to seek new opportunities
and find husbands for the girls, Eve and Lil. One night a
stranger in a canoe approaches the family's campsite; at first they
suspect him of being a river pirate, but he turns out to be
congenial fur trapper Linus Rawlings, who impresses the Prescott
boys with tall tales of legendary mountain man Jim Bridger.
Eve is also taken with Linus, but the noncommittal backwoodsman
leaves abruptly one morning.
Linus interrupts his journey to stop at a
tavern/general store operated in a cave by river pirate Colonel
Hawkins, whose alluring young daughter, Dora, clubs Linus on the
head and throws him into a pit in the back of the cave. Soon
the Prescotts happen by and are in the midst of being robbed by the
murderous Hawkins clan when Linus, who has swum outside to the river
through an opening in the pit, sneaks up behind the thieves and
saves the settlers with the help of some explosives.
As the Prescotts continue their journey by raft, they
are swept away by rapids. Zebulon and Rebecca drown, and Linus,
having seen Eve survive danger twice, decides at the funeral to
marry her and settle by her parents' gravesite. Lil,
meanwhile, decides to go to St. Louis.
The Plains
Gambler Cleve Van Valen and his cronies watch Lil Prescott's
dance hall act and make a wager as to how many petticoats she is
wearing. Cleve goes backstage to her dressing room to obtain
firsthand proof and overhears that Lil has just inherited a gold
mine in California from an elderly admirer. Heavily in debt,
Cleve decides to follow Lil out West in hopes of obtaining some of
her revenue. Along the way she falls in love with him and
refuses the marriage proposal of wagon master Roger Morgan.
After surviving an Indian attack, Lil and Cleve
arrive in California, only to learn that the mine is worthless.
The news temporarily halts Cleve's courtship, but they eventually
marry after all and decide to settle in the new boomtown of San
Francisco.
The Civil War
Eve, who has lost Linus to battle, watches their son, Zeb, leave
home to join the Union Army. Once in combat, Zeb finds that
war is not as glorious as he was led to believe, and at the Battle
of Shiloh he meets a Confederate deserter who is similarly
disillusioned. Together they witness an intimate conversation
between Generals Sherman and Grant, in which the latter expresses
concern about public criticism of his drinking. The
Confederate soldier suddenly tries to assassinate the generals, and
Zeb is forced to kill his new friend. After the war, he
returns home to find that his mother has died. He joins the U.
S. Cavalry to protect railroad workers from the Indians.
The Railroad
Aided by Jethro Stuart, a grizzled buffalo hunter, Zeb manages
to keep peace with the Indians until ruthless foreman Mike King
demands that the railroad break a treaty and take a shortcut through
Indian land. Consequently, the Indians stampede the buffalo,
and the animals destroy the camp, leaving several children orphaned.
Angered that he has unwittingly been involved in the tragedy, Zeb
resigns and goes to Arizona.
The Outlaws
Now a marshal in the 1880's, Zeb, his wife, Julie, and their
children are visited by Lil, widowed and somewhat impoverished after
a life of intermittent luxury with Cleve. Meanwhile, Zeb
learns that an old enemy, Charlie Gant, is planning with his gang to
rob a train carrying a gold shipment. Julie begs him not to go
after Gant, but Zeb, who is anxious to send the outlaw to jail, is
adamant. A furious gunfight takes place on the runaway train,
during which the chains on the log car break and scatter logs across
the countryside. Zeb barely escapes death, and the entire
train derails, but Zeb nevertheless slays his adversary and returns
to his family.
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