The Sea of Grass

On her wedding day in St. Louis, Lutie Cameron receives a telegram from fiancé Col. Brewton instructing her to board a train to New Mexico to marry him in Salt Fork. She leaves behind the familiar and sets off toward a rugged frontier life. The order signals the beginning of a long, tumultuous relationship shaped by the Great Plains.

Upon her arrival in Salt Fork, Lutie is met by Brice Chamberlain, who warns that Brewton's rule could lead to unhappiness. He hints at the power struggles between ranchers and homesteaders in town. The warning plants a sense of foreboding about her new life.

Chamberlain escorts Lutie to the courthouse where a judge dismisses charges against several of Jim's men accused of harassing homesteaders. Jim exults at this triumph as he appears in the crowd. The scene exposes the skewed justice and the rancher-led order that dominates Salt Fork.

At Brewton's ranch, he proudly escorts Lutie to see the prairie and the cattle roving on government land beside his claims. He argues that the Great Plains do not reliably support farming due to sparse rain, a view that clashes with the locals like Chamberlain. Lutie wonders where her loyalties lie as the frontier politics press in.

Feeling isolated, Lutie befriends displaced homesteaders Sam and Selina Hall. She persuades Brewton to let them settle on his land, hoping to bring companionship and a sense of community. The arrangement shows how resilience and land disputes shape personal ties on the prairie.

On a return ride from town, Chamberlain confesses his attraction to Lutie, complicating her feelings for Brewton. Lutie opens up about her loneliness and the emotional distance with her husband, while resisting his advances. The triangle sets in motion a conflicted love that will haunt Salt Fork.

Lutie gives birth to a daughter, Sara Beth, at the Salt Fork ranch. Brewton's support remains present but his trust in Lutie is unsettled by the earlier tension. The new child deepens her ties to the frontier life even as it tests her marriage.

During a blizzard, Sam Hall ventures out as cattle stampede toward the Hall house. He shoots one of Brewton's cows, and Brewton's men strike him in retaliation. Selina Hall carries Sam back inside, loses their baby, and the Halls finally concede their land to Brewton.

Furious, Lutie leaves Salt Fork for Denver and later rekindles contact with Chamberlain, beginning a discreet affair. She returns to Brewton, concealing the depth of that relationship, and soon bears a son, Brock. The whereabouts of Brock's paternity becomes a source of hidden pain.

During Brock's birth, Lutie confesses to Doc Neil that Brock is Chamberlain's son, and Brewton overhears. Doc Neil urges forgetting the claim as childbirth hallucinatory, but Brewton will not forget. The revelation seeds distrust that will haunt their marriage for years.

Two years later, Chamberlain lobbies for a Federal District Court in Salt Fork and wins election as its judge. A new influx of homesteaders arrives, and Brewton arms his men to resist them. He forces Lutie to confess the affair, warning that the land and her loyalty are in doubt.

Back in St. Louis, Lutie consults a lawyer who outlines the custody trap: naming Chamberlain as Brock's father could win Brock's custody but cost Sara Beth. She decides not to pursue a fight that would hurt her children. Chamberlain urges her to run away together with Brock, but Lutie remains unwilling.

Over the next decade, drought devastates crops and Salt Fork's prosperity fades. Sara Beth grows up and eventually attends college, while Brock becomes a gambler and a source of gossip in town. The town changes around them as the frontier era wears on.

In a fatal card-game confrontation, Brock is killed after a pistol duel and a pursuing posse. Brewton and Brock reconcile shortly before his death, and Lutie, learning of Brock's demise, returns to Salt Fork. She reconciles with Brewton in a final scene, recognizing his enduring love and the pull of the sea of grass.