Benjie (Brock Peters) is a former slave who returns from fighting for the North after the Civil War. He returns to the ranch of his former owner Neal McMasters (Burl Ives), who is grateful for Benjie's return. Neal offers him a job as ranch foreman, but many of the cowboys quit rather than take orders from a black man. White Feather (David Carradine) is the Indian leader befriended by the sympathetic Benjie when the braves steal a cow in order to survive. The Indians agree to help out on the ranch, and White Feather expresses his gratitude by giving his sister Robin (Nancy Kwan) to Benjie. The prejudice of the townsfolk increases when Robin and Benjie are married. Kolby (Jack Palance) is the former Confederate who tries to buy the ranch from Neal. When he refuses the offer, Kolby leads an attack of renegades on the ranch. Surrounded on all sides by irate gunmen, White Feather mobilizes his braves to rescue the beleaguered duo in this excellent western saga.