Two ranching families successfully battle the elements of life on the high plains and become wealthy. But everything that they worked for is jeopardized by the Panic of 1873, which leaves many men out of work and failed banks and businesses across America. Adding insult to injury, the grasshopper plague of 1874 destroys their crops and pastures forcing them to leave their homes and drive their cattle and horses north in search of grass. Hard times on the prairie can cut to the bone and expose your weakness, make you question God, make you despair and want to give up. Or you can bow your neck, face the wind and take up the fight