Jonathan Trumbo, an Army deserter, leads a wagon train west during the Gold Rush. He reluctantly allows gambler Lily Bishop to join, alongside farmer Michael Fabian. When gold fever scatters the settlers, Trumbo and Fabian push on to California, where Lily has fallen under the sway of scheming landowner Pharaoh Coffin, whose ambitions threaten to control the entire territory and everyone in it.