Two brave women—one white, one Indian—are forced together by circumstances to end a savage Indian war. Eva Beardsley, a headstrong teenager from 1878 upstate New York, believes she is the cause of her boyfriend's death. She hopes to heal from the painful experience by emigrating west with her family. They join a wagon train, unaware that the Bannock Indian war has just broken out in Oregon—squarely in their path. Eva dashes ahead by stagecoach, but meets and falls in love with U.S. cavalryman Sergeant Jim Adams. Jim is suddenly recruited to fight Indians, but Eva secretly follows him across the desert. She becomes lost but is rescued by Paiute princess Sarah Winnemucca and her cousin Mattie, who are Army scouts for General Howard against their own people. Howard believes in victory without slaughter and Sarah believes her people are doomed without him. Eva learns that Jim has been captured or killed and forms a tenuous alliance with Sarah to find him. She soon realizes she's prejudiced and shouldn't be; that Sarah isn't and should be. Each believes she can change the other as they try to rescue Jim and Paiute Chief Egan, now both captives of the Dreamer-Prophet Oytes.
