Director Cecil B. DeMille's sprawling historical epic stars Gary Cooper as Capt. Christopher Holden, who's charged with defending Pennsylvania's Fort Pitt from an Indian leader (Boris Karloff) in league with a treacherous gun supplier (Howard Da Silva). Along the way, Holden finds time to fall in love with the beautiful Abby Hale (Paulette Goddard), an Englishwoman unjustly sentenced to involuntary servitude in the New World.