After a mob takes control of the docks of San Francisco, Captain David Farragut formulates a plan to enable the Navy to regain control.

Huldah is to marry a man she has never met when she leaves her home in the east. She takes the precaution of hiding her savings until she knows she is making the right choice.

A former cowhand now prefers to paint the life of the cowboy, which he feels is vanishing. While visiting his childhood home he must decide if using violence to protect that way of life in the face of inevitable progress is justified.