The Breslins (Jake, Emma, three boys, and nubile daughter) cross the plains in a covered wagon, then pause in a lawless western town where Jake is shot by gunslingers Arn and Jud. But folksy Judge Copeland persuades them to go on. At Break Wagon Hill, their wagon does the obvious and they homestead on the spot. We follow their trials and joys and those of neighbors, the Bascombs. Finally, violence reappears in the form of a pair of rustlers...our old friends Arn and Jud.