Plot
Apache Chief Nanchez orders the massacre of a US cavalry patrol surrounded by his warriors. Cavalry reinforcements arrive, and First Sergeant Clovis Hook takes Nanchez and most of his men captive, though a few escape. The soldiers then torch the Apache village, rounding up the women and children. A soldier spots a white woman among the prisoners. She is Cora Sutcliff, taken captive in a raid years before while travelling to join her rancher husband, and has a kid named Quito – Nanchez’s son. Hook takes command of the surviving cavalrymen, and they and their prisoners return to their fort.
The feeling of the women there is unsympathetic towards Cora. They reason that any sane white woman would have committed suicide before allowing herself to be "defiled" by an Indian. The Colonel's wife alone expresses sympathy, feeling that she might have done what Cora did to survive.
Hook is assigned to escort Cora and Quito to her husband. The next day, Cora and Quito wait for him at the general store while Hook arranges for their stagecoach tickets. A man insults mother and son and grabs Quito. Cora hits the bully with a shovel, threatening to kill anyone who lays hands on her son, the first words she has spoken since her rescue. Hook arrives and they set off in a stage driven by the irascible Mr. Trude.
At a stop, Cora and Quito are barred from Wilson’s Restaurant by its owner, so Hook buys cheese sandwiches and they have a picnic by a stream. Cora asks him if he can understand wanting to live so much that you will put up with any humiliation. Hook reveals that as a prisoner of war in the Confederate prison at Andersonville, he pretended to be a dog for a month so that a dog-loving prisoner, who was dying and hallucinating with fever, would share his rations with him. Cora understands, and finds herself becoming attracted to him.
Meanwhile, Nanchez escapes, rounds up his remaining braves, and sets out to take back his son. He begins tracking the stage, planning how to attack it.
The stagecoach picks up and drops off other passengers, including the young Jeff Bennett, whom everyone calls simply “Cowboy.” Cowboy is courteous toward Cora and Quito. At their next stop, the stagecoach takes on an aristocratic elderly Spanish woman, Senora Sandoval, and her granddaughter, Consuela, who has left her convent school for an arranged marriage. Rancher Charlie Travers boards, flush with a lot of money he won in a poker game.
At the swing station, Cowboy learns that Nanchez has escaped and is likely after his son. Cowboy sets out on a borrowed horse and catches up with the stagecoach.
After learning why Nanchez is stalking them, every passenger but Travers supports Cora’s decision to keep Quito. As Trude drives the stage at a breakneck pace it hits a rock, overturns, and damages the coach's suspension. Nanchez appears and offers a deal: The stage and its passengers will be allowed to proceed if they give him Quito. Hook refuses the deal.
They are forced to spend the night in the desert while Trude makes repairs. Cowboy and Consuela get acquainted, and an attraction develops between them.
In the morning, Nanchez sends word that he will attack unless his son is returned to him. Travers offers Cora money to give up Quito. When Cora remains undeterred, Travers sneaks off to try to bribe Nanchez to spare the group. Nanchez kills him, leaving his money untouched. Surrounded, Hook has Trude restrain Cora and makes Cowboy hold a gun to Quito’s head within sight of Nanchez, instructing Cowboy to shoot if Hook drops his arm as a signal during his parley with Nanchez. Hook tells Nanchez that his son’s life will be forfeit if he attacks. Thwarted, Nanchez orders his band to retreat.
The repaired stagecoach reaches San Miguel, but Cora’s husband Fred is not there to meet her. Hook rents a buckboard to take them to Fred's ranch. When they arrive, Fred makes it clear he is willing to take Cora back, but not her son. Cora decides to leave with Quito. Fred points a rifle at Hook, affirming that Cora belongs to him, but that he and Quito can leave. Cora tells Fred their marriage is over, and asks Hook to take her and Quito back to town.
Nanchez and his band appear and attack. Hook, Cora, Quito, and Fred pile onto the buckboard and run for it. A chase ensues. Hook drives the buckboard, while Fred rides in the back, firing his rifle at the Apaches. Fred kills Nanchez, but gets shot and dies. Seeing Nanchez fall, the Apaches give up the chase, preferring to take no action until a new chief is chosen. Hook stops to bury Fred before continuing to town.
Heading back to San Miguel, Hook tells Cora that he will be retiring in four months, if she will have him. She asks about the wife and family he referred to repeatedly, and Hook explains they are a fiction he invented to get matchmaking wives to leave him alone. The new-made family rides off into the sunset.
