Following years of land encroachments by American settlers, Chief Little Turtle of the Miami leads the Indian Nations of the Northwest Confederacy to a major victory over the fledgling U.S. Army. But a new force under General 'Mad' Anthony Wayne embarks on a counteroffensive, leading to a final battle that will see the Confederacy defeated - and open a new era of westward expansion.

After building his reputation as a formidable hunter on Lewis and Clark's Expedition into the newly acquired Louisiana Territory, John Colter chooses to stay out in the wilderness and enter the booming fur trade. But when he repeatedly ignores warnings from the Blackfeet not to hunt their sacred beaver on their lands, he's taken captive and forced to make a run for his life.

The abduction of six-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker kicks off a series of increasingly deadly confrontations between her Comanche captors and the newly independent Texas. As the Comanche grow ever more desperate to protect their lands from Texan incursions, Cynthia Ann's eventual rescue sees her violently removed from her new native family, and dropped back into a seemingly hostile foreign culture, while pushing her son - the last Comanche leader - on a campaign of revenge that will ultimately bring down their empire.

In Gold Rush California, Mexican immigrant Joaquin Murrieta forms a gang of outlaws that spreads terror across the newly formed state. A posse of California Rangers, led by the fearsome Harry Love, takes Murrieta down - but his growing legend as a hero to the downtrodden lives on to this day.