Will Penny

A trail drive ends; Blue, Dutchy, and Will Penny decide to drift south to avoid winter. They plan to find work and a new life. Will trades his position riding on the train with the cattle to a young cowboy who wants to visit his dying father, and mentions there may be work at the Flat Iron ranch.

Blue is about to fire on a bull elk near a river bottom, but the unseen shooter beats them to the meat. A confrontation with the rawhider and his family ensues when they intervene. Will arrives, shoots one of the rawhider's sons, and the surviving men swear biblical revenge as Dutchy wounds himself in the fight.

Seeking medical help, the trio moves toward a doctor and stops at a nearby trail store. There they meet Catherine Allen and her son Horace and share a drink before pressing on to the nearest town. Dutchy is left with the doctor while Blue and Will continue.

Will finds a riderless horse and a dead cowboy along the trail, and he arranges to turn the body over to the Flat Iron ranch. Impressed by the find, the ranch offers him a job.

Will signs on to ride the remote boundary of the Flat Iron ranch for the winter. The job takes him across the distant high country, testing his endurance.

While surveying the fence line, Will discovers Catherine and Horace staying in the line-rider's cabin after their guide abandons them. He warns them that they must be gone when he returns in one week.

Early the next morning, the rawhider group ambushes Will, leaves him badly beaten and stabbed. They rob him and abandon him, but he drags himself to the line-rider's cabin. Catherine tends to his wounds and slowly nurses him back to health.

During the long winter, Will and Catherine fall in love and Will grows to feel a fatherly affection for Horace. Their bond deepens as they face the harsh season together.

During Christmas, the Quint family bursts into the cabin, forcing Will to do chores and pressing Catherine to choose among the Quint sons. Catherine buys time by distracting the two Quint sons, while Will escapes. Blue and Dutchy arrive seeking Will.

Will joins Blue and Dutchy to storm the cabin and free Catherine and Horace. They use a sulfur smoke from the chimney to flush the rawhiders and then shoot them.

The Flat Iron trail boss arrives, signaling the end of the immediate crisis. Will realizes he is too old and set in his ways to settle down with Catherine. Against Catherine's protests, he chooses the road again and rides away with Dutchy and Blue. He donates his wages from the ranch to Catherine as a final gesture.

Will, Blue, and Dutchy ride off together into the open range, embracing the life of trail hands. They leave behind the domestic life Will had briefly tasted, but carry the bonds of friendship and responsibility with them. The frontier remains a place of work, danger, and purpose that defines their days.