As Meg Alden and her Uncle Tip attempt to catch up to the wagon train led by boss Matt Delaney, their wagon is set on fire by Pawnee Indian braves led by Crazy Fox, a fierce warrior who wants to fight the whites rather than make peace with them. Tip is shot with an arrow as he and Meg attempt to cross a river, and the Indians make off with their horses and cattle. Pale Arrow, a white man who was reared by Pawnee chief Wise Eagle following the death of his parents in the desert, sees the attack and rides to help Tip. As he tries to remove the arrow, Meg goes for her rifle. Pale Arrow struggles with her and takes the rifle away, then strips off her shirt sleeve and uses it as a tourniquet to stanch the blood from Tip's wound. He leads them close to the wagon train, then rides off before Matt and the others find Tip and Meg. At the Pawnee camp, Pale Arrow and Crazy Fox taunt each other. Wise Eagle, who believes that the future of his people lies in living peacefully with the white man, sees that Pale Arrow has become disturbed by his contact with his own people and advises him to go to them and find answers to what is troubling him, then to return to the tribe. Wise Eagle plans, upon his own death, for Pale Arrow and Crazy Fox to rule together so that each will complement the other's strengths and weaknesses. Although Pale Arrow is to marry Wise Eagle's daughter, Dancing Fawn, at the next moon, he joins up with the wagon train. Wearing white man's clothing and using the name "Paul Fletcher," he becomes their scout. Crazy Fox follows the wagon train and delivers a message to Paul. Matt is about to shoot at the departing Indian, but Paul stops him, saying that Crazy Fox brought a message and that the wagon train is under the protection of Wise Eagle. At the Pawnee camp, Crazy Fox tries to win Dancing Fawn for himself by discrediting his rival, but she refuses him, saying she belongs completely to Pale Arrow. Although Paul tries to remain aloof from the rest of the wagon party, Meg finds him bathing and recognizes him as Tip's rescuer. Paul confesses that he has come because he wanted to hold her again, thus making Meg happy. She gladly kisses him when he awkwardly says he has heard of a custom the whites have that does away with words. Their kiss is interrupted by an arrow shot into the tree, and he identifies the arrow as a message for him to return to the Pawnee camp. Before going, he tells Meg that the wagon train should continue on their course south, skirting Pawnee territory. Meg relates Paul's true identity to the group, but because one of the women, Martha Brewster, is to give birth soon, they vote to take a shortcut west through Pawnee country, hoping to reach Fort Baxter in three days. At the Pawnee camp, Paul finds that Wise Eagle has died. Dancing Fawn, who shot the arrow, wants Paul to remain as chief despite seeing him kiss Meg, so that he can lead her people in peace; however, Paul says that he no longer belongs with them. Crazy Fox leads the Pawnees in an attack on the wagon train, taking the lives of fifteen settlers, including Martha, who dies giving birth to a son. Matt and Martha's grief-stricken husband John blame Paul, suspecting that he planned to trap them. When Paul appears at Martha's funeral, Tip stops the others from hanging him, but tells Paul now that he has repaid him for saving his life, he will kill him if he sees him again. Paul goes back to the Pawnee camp and berates the braves for following Crazy Fox, but after a scout brings news of a war council convening with the goal of wiping out the whites forever, Crazy Fox encourages his people to strike now or forever be the white man's slaves. Paul is tied to a post, and after the braves leave, he is beaten by squaws and children. Before he is to suffer "squaw torture," Dancing Fawn releases him and he rides off to Fort Baxter. By identifying himself as Pale Arrow, he convinces the colonel that the Pawnee plan to join six northern tribes and that they must be surprised on open ground, or else the fort will be overrun and all the whites killed. Meanwhile, Tip locates a cave from which the wagon party can view the whole valley, and leaving their wagons and cattle in the valley, the party holes up in the fortress. After they see the Indians approach, they are heartened to see Paul arrive with the first group of soldiers. Matt joins Paul as he fires at the Indians from a rocky vantage point. The rest of the cavalry arrive and rout the Indians, while Paul chases down Crazy Fox and drowns him. As a wedding present, Matt gives Paul and Meg his wagon and goes off to California. Meg then reminds Paul of the kissing custom, and they kiss as they ride off with the rest of the wagon train.
