Plot
In the 1856 Dakota Territory, pregnant Anna Nordholm and her husband Orin build a cabin for a simple farm life. Orin plows the fields, and Anna chops wood; Orin Jr. is an infant. They see another wagon family who is moving west to California to live off the land and raise a family. They become neighbors, and Anna thinks that they will live there forever. Orin dreams of a town with hundreds of families, and Orinville is established. Eleven years later, Orin says at a wedding that he hopes Orin Jr. marries his childhood friend, Selma.
Orin Jr. (Paul Muni) speaks with a gambler in 1877 about money to be made driving steer north from Texas, but his parents disapprove. He sneaks out of the house in the middle of the night, leaving a letter that he will drive steer and Selma will understand. During the drive, he encounters a river, thunderstorms, and bandits who frighten his cattle. Orin goes to Omaha, where James Clafflin is a businessman. James talks Orin into driving the cattle to Chicago, and Orin returns home to tell his parents and Selma. Orin Sr. asks why he cannot stay in Orinville, but thinks that what drove him and Anna west is what drives his son to Chicago. Orin asks Selma (Jean Muir) to leave with him, but she refuses.
James' daughter, Ginny (Mary Astor), visits and meets Orin; they marry in 1879. When James dies in 1881, Ginny is distraught that everyone at his funeral is from the stockyard. Other cattlemen complain that Orin is too ruthless, and pressure the bank not to renew his loan. Orin tells the bank to invest in his meat-freezing equipment instead. He spends all his money on development, and his secretary says, "If only we could put ice boxes on wheels." This gives Orin an idea.
He lives on a palatial estate in 1893 with Ginny and their sons, Richard and John. Orin is upset to read that Anna will not visit them. He and Ginny quarrel about the boys visiting stockyards. She has a breakdown, and locks herself in their bedroom.
In 1904, Ginny is excited that the Clintons, an old eastern family, will visit from New York. Orin thinks that they are trying to take his company, and does not want to spend money on a party. Ginny wants Richard to marry Jennifer Clinton (Margaret Lindsay). Ginny announces at the party that Orin is retiring and establishing an art gallery, and his company's stock falls. Orin rages against Wall Street, and wants the family to stay in Chicago. Ginny becomes ill; Orin wants to care for her, but there is a run on the company's stock. When Orin returns home, Ginny has a psychotic break, collapses and dies. Richard and John blame Orin for her death, and he says that he will sell the company.
Orin reads at his club during the 1920s that his granddaughter will marry English nobleman Philip Ivor. He and his grandson, Orin III, are upset; Jennifer Clinton says that the younger Orin is like his grandfather. Richard is a Wall Street banker, funded by Orin. Philip visits Orin Jr., who tells Richard that he is making a mistake by letting Natalie marry him. Jennifer orders him out of their house. Orin III reads that Anna, almost 90, will visit New York. He is excited because he has never met his great-grandmother, but Orin Jr. does not want his mother to know about his family's troubles. Anna is dismayed to learn that the family lives on his money.
In late October 1929, the stock market crashes and Richard and his son Paul face prison. Orin Jr. will not bail them out; he is happy to see Orin III and young Selma, and leaves him all his assets to start a new life in South Dakota. Paul runs away to avoid prison. Richard learns that Jennifer has been having an affair with Ogden, who stole money, and kills himself in front of her. Orin Jr. sees Richard's body, flashes back to Ginny, falls down the stairs and dies. Orin III and young Selma return to Orinville with Anna to start a new life.
