Stars Kirk Douglas, Jeanne Crain, Richard Boone, and Claire Trevor! This inspiring tale tells the story of a wandering cowboy who eventually becomes a foreman on a ranch run by a tough boss who may not deserve his loyalty….

Dempsey Rae has been spending some time drifting through Texas when he decides to ride the rails to Wyoming with his new friend, a young man named Jeff Jimson. They are headed there to work as cattle ranchers.

Once in Wyoming, they start working on a ranch owned by an Easterner named Reed Bowman. It seems that Bowman is crowding out other smaller ranchers with multitudes of cattle on the open range. This is leading the smaller ranchers to turn to barbed wire to keep Bowman’s cattle off of their land. Dempsey loathes barbed wire and declares that it will be the ruination of the open range.

As tensions mount, Dempsey teaches Jeff the intricacies of riding, roping, and shooting. But he is amazed when he finally meets Reed Bowman and learns that Bowman is not just an iron-willed, Eastern-born rancher – she’s also a very attractive woman!

Impressed by Dempsey, Bowman offers him the job as top ranch hand and suggests that her favors may be a part of the bargain. When the new herd arrives, she soon elevates Dempsey to foreman.

But Dempsey is no fool. He sees how Bowman runs roughshod over her neighbors, bringing in even more cattle than the area can sustain, allowing them to overtake the neighbors’ herds and exhaust the supply of grass.

Soon, he will be forced to choose: should he stay loyal to the steely-fisted Bowman, or help the downtrodden settlers she seeks to ruin?