[The following plot summary is based on the English-language version of this film, The Big Trail ; character names refer to that version.] A wagon train of eastern pioneers leaves from Westport, Mississippi, to travel the Oregon Trail and to extend the boundaries of the American Republic to the Pacific Northwest. Their leader is scout Breck Coleman, who has pledged to avenge the death of a trapper friend. En route, the travelers experience a buffalo hunt, the threacherous fording of a river, a snowstorm, an Indian attack on the wagons, and the lowering of wagons, cattle, women, and children over a mountainside to pick up the trail to the West. Breck is enamored of Ruth Cameron, though he almost loses her to Bill Thorpe, and gradually establishes that Red Flack is the murderer of his friend; Thorpe, under Red's influence, tries to kill Breck but is himself shot. After reaching the Oregon country, Breck sets out in a snowstorm to avenge his pal's death and ultimately brings the villain to his end.
