Nina (Shirley Jean Rickert), a young half-Native American girl whose mother has recently died, must find her white father in order to claim her hefty inheritance. Of course, a defenseless heiress seems like easy pickings to some of the Wild West's most dastardly thugs, including Sam Black (Yakima Canutt), who is soon on her trail. But, thankfully, Nina has a noble guardian in cowboy Chris Morrell (John Wayne), who vows to get the girl safely to her estranged father.