Lieutenant Colonel Kirby Yorke of the US Cavalry is pursuing a futile campaign against marauding Apache Indians who escape across the Mexican Border for immunity. The intense pressures on York increase when his son Jeff joins the regiment and his beautiful estranged wife arrives and tries to buy Jeff out of the army.

Yorks patience snaps and he leads an illegal all-out attack on the Apaches. The first pairing of Wayne and Maureen OHara is an unforgettable classic the third film in John Fords magnificent trilogy about the troopers of the old West.