A young boy, Jamie Wagner, rides across the desert to a horse ranch owned by a Native American, Chino Valdez. After Jamie spends the night, Chino gives him a job, and they drive a herd of horses into town. While Chino is being paid for the horses, a stagecoach arrives. Chino watches as Maral, a wealthy rancher, and his sister, Louise, get off the stage. Ricardo, a Mexican rancher, says he knows what is in Chino’s "dirty Indian mind," so Chino punches him. Ricardo draws his six-shooter, but Maral says to put it away. The Sheriff tells Chino not to make any more trouble. In a saloon, Chino beats five men into unconsciousness, so the sheriff orders him to leave town. Back at the ranch, Chino and Jamie look for a pregnant mare when Jamie spots a stallion running free. Chino says that it is “Flag”, his prize stud, who has breeding papers that go all the way back to England. When they find the mare, they discover she has given birth, but her sides are all cut up from barbed wire. Chino puts her out of her misery. They take the colt home, name him “Banner,” and nurse him by the fireplace. Later, Chino inspects his land when he sees a new barbed wire fence stuck with pieces of horseflesh. Chino rides to Maral’s house, but finds only Louise home. She explains that Maral is her half-brother and she is English. When Maral returns, he says that, according to the newest survey, Chino’s ranch is on his land and he can do what he wants with the fence. Before Chino leaves, Louise asks if she can come to see his horses. The next day, Louise arrives in British riding attire to buy a horse, but when Chino sees her sitting sidesaddle, he refuses to sell. She leaves in a huff, but returns the next day wearing pants. Chino gives her a quick riding lesson, which ends when she takes offense with Chino’s contention that she will never be a good rider because all of her “woman parts” bounce too much. A few days later, Louise interrupts Chino’s bath. As he tries to cover up, Louise says that he looks and sounds like a horse and threatens to wash his back. Chino is intimidated, but gives in to her requests for more lessons. One day, Louise watches Chino as he ropes a wild mustang. She begs him to let it go, telling Chino that she cannot stand how scared the horse is. Later, Louise watches as Flag copulates with a mare. She looks at Chino and, frightened, runs away. However, he catches her, spins her around, then kisses her and soon they are making love. Sometime later, Maral and his men threaten to burn down Chino’s ranch if he goes near Louise again. The next day, Chino and Jamie deliver two sides of beef to a Cheyenne camp. A young woman greets Chino and they go into her teepee, leaving Jamie to wander about. The children play with Jamie's blond hair until he pushes them away. That night, a woman tries to seduce Chino, but fails. When she leaves, Chino tells Jamie that when he was young, he, too, searched for a new life and met the Cheyenne. He liked them, so he stayed for a few years. However, he could see their way of life was dying out, so he decided to get a place of his own. He explains that he came back on this day to think over his problem, but they will go back to the ranch at sunrise. Upon returning home, Chino cuts a small pine for a Christmas tree. He and Jamie then ride into town for the Christmas Eve celebrations. As Jamie joins the children to break a piñata, Chino finds Louise and sneaks away with her into an empty building. Chino tells Louise that Maral threatened him, so he has decided that the only way to handle the situation is to marry her. She accepts and leaves before four of Maral’s men appear wielding knives. Chino fights the men off with a long handled pot until the sheriff arrests them all. The next day, Maral finds his sister waiting for Chino at the church and threatens to kill Chino if she does not go home. After she leaves, Chino enters the church where he is ambushed by Maral and his men. Chino is tied to the back of a horse and dragged back to his ranch where the men whip him until he is almost unconscious. Maral orders Chino to leave by the end of the day, or his men will kill him. Jamie takes Chino back to the Cheyennes, who nurse him back to health. When Chino and Jamie return home, they find that one of Maral’s men has slit Banner’s throat. The next morning, Chino buries the colt and stands watch over his herd. Four of Maral’s men appear and try to kill Flag, but they are gunned down by Chino. In the ensuing gunfight, Chino kills five men, and then unleashes a stampede of his horses. As Chino yells that he is leaving, Maral allows him to ride out of the canyon. However, Chino goes back to the ranch house and, with the exception of one horse he gives to Jamie, he drives off the remainder of his herd. He tells the boy they must go their separate ways. Chino then sets his house on fire and rides away.