Jay Warren, Harvard, 1876, discovers that his father, Tecumseh, has left him some cash and a rail ticket to Cheyenne, Wyoming. Also a note that says the West is a good place to make something of himself. Tecumseh is a self-made shipping magnate, and he wants his son to make his own way in the world. So the son heads west, appalled at what life has dealt him, and soon is making all the wrong choices, looking for easy money, a quick killing, instead of knuckling down into a useful occupation. Jay gets himself into bad company, makes reckless moves, and eventually faces a life or death decision. Does Jay reach manhood at last, out in the great West?