Sean Thornton has returned from America to reclaim his homestead and escape his past. Sean’s eye is caught by Mary Kate Danaher, the beautiful spinster and younger sister of ill-tempered “Red” Will Danaher. The riotous relationship that forms between Sean and Mary Kate, punctuated by Will’s pugnacious attempts to keep them apart, form the plot, with Sean’s past as the dark undercurrent.

In 1922, an Irish rebel informs on his friend, then feels doom closing in.

Set in America’s Colonial period, John Ford’s adventure tale follows Gilbert (Henry Fonda) and Lana Martin (Claudette Colbert) as they try to survive the rugged frontier. After their settlement is repeatedly attacked by Indians, the couple is taken in by a spinster (Edna May Oliver). Lana bears a son, while Gilbert heads off to fight the Indians and the British. He returns, wounded, to find his family once again under attack by the Indians.