In early 20th-century Montana, Col. William Ludlow lives on a ranch in the wilderness with his sons, Alfred, Tristan, and Samuel. Eventually, the unconventional but close-knit family are bound by loyalty, tested by war, and torn apart by love, as told over the course of several decades in this epic saga.
After conning a potential buyer into believing that Queenie's herd is diseased, nasty would-be empire builder Duke Drake is confronted by the girl's new tough foreman Bill Foster. In retaliation, Drake frames Bill for a stage robbery committed by his own henchmen and arranges a phony trial presided over by the saloon's bartender Judge Whipple. Queenie interrupts the "trial" with the news that the townswomen have all elected Jim Marshal. To uphold the decision, Bill has secured the release of three convicted outlaws: Blackie Malone, Bad Bill Smith, and Shotgun Thompson, two of whom join in the fight against Drake and his gang.
Bank robber Graham Dorsey spends a few hours with beautiful widow Amanda Starbuck, in which time his gang takes part in a disastrous holdup. Learning of his comrades' demise, Dorsey goes on the lam. Believing her short-term lover was killed by the law, Amanda decides to make the most of having had a liaison with the supposedly deceased desperado by writing a book about him. Much to his confusion, the still-living Dorsey watches as his name becomes legendary.
After the train station clerk is assaulted and left bound and gagged, then the departing train and its passengers robbed, a posse goes in hot pursuit of the fleeing bandits.
A renowned former army scout is hired by ranchers to hunt down rustlers but finds himself on trial for the murder of a boy when he carries out his job too well. Tom Horn finds that the simple skills he knows are of no help in dealing with the ambitions of ranchers and corrupt officials as progress marches over him and the old west.
Aging rancher and self-made man, George Washington McLintock is forced to deal with numerous personal and professional problems. Seemingly everyone wants a piece of his enormous farmstead, including high-ranking government men and nearby Native Americans. As McLintock tries to juggle his various adversaries, his wife—who left him two years previously—suddenly returns. But she isn't interested in George; she wants custody of their daughter.
When Rocklin arrives in a western town he finds that the rancher who hired him as a foreman has been murdered. He is out to solve the murder and thwart the scheming to take the ranch from its rightful owner.
U.S. Deputy Marshal Roy investigates the disappearance of a government agent who has come to Dale's father's Ladder A Ranch. The bad guys want the land the ranch sits on because they know an oil pipeline is planned through this location.
Ben Wade and his partner Frosty return to Bellounds' ranch where twenty years earlier Wade was wanted for murder. Unrecognized, he gets a job on the ranch and soon becomes involved in Folsom's cattle rustling and a chance to settle an old score.
Johnny Mack Brown is sent to the badlands to round up an elusive outlaw gang.
When his cattlemen abandon him for the gold fields, rancher Wil Andersen is forced to take on a collection of young boys as his cowboys in order to get his herd to market in time to avoid financial disaster. The boys learn to do a man's job under Andersen's tutelage, however, neither he nor the boys know that a gang of cattle thieves is stalking them.
When the law fails to punish a fellow rancher that has abused his horses, a Wyoming horse trader sacrifices it all in a quest for justice.
When US Marshal Moses White is called to the Wyoming Territory town of Dogwood Pass he never realized the corruption and deceit that awaited his arrival. Sometimes one small seed of seduction and greed planted in the right situation can cause a whole town to go bad. One bad character leads to another and it all starts with a dead husband in a western town.
Wealthy rancher Bick Benedict and dirt-poor cowboy Jett Rink both woo Leslie Lynnton, a beautiful young woman from Maryland who is new to Texas. She marries Benedict, but she is shocked by the racial bigotry of the White Texans against the local people of Mexican descent. Rink discovers oil on a small plot of land, and while he uses his vast, new wealth to buy all the land surrounding the Benedict ranch, the Benedict's disagreement over prejudice fuels conflict that runs across generations.
Jim Killian arrives in a small Arizona town hoping to establish a peaceful life as the local preacher, but he soon finds himself in the middle of a feud between sheep ranchers and cattlemen. Leloopa, a young Native American woman, pleads for Killian's help after her shepherd father is hung by Coke Beck, the vicious son of the head cattle rancher. Killian must weigh his actions carefully lest he perpetuate the cycle of retribution and revenge.
Two friends hired to police a small town that is suffering under the rule of a rancher find their job complicated by the arrival of a young widow.
Cowhand Drake discovers gold on the ranch of his boss, Joe Stuart and makes a deal with crooked lawyer Mel Porter to induce Stuart to sell. The latter refuses, and also orders Bill Cameron not to see his daughter Laurie again. Foreman Johnny Mack, after intervening, quits after he sees Stuart hit Laurie while quarreling over her proposed marriage to Cameron. Peddler Alibi Terhune witnesses the killing of Stuart by Clem Kettering, hired by Porter, and is taken prisoner. Cameron is blamed for Stuart's killing, escapes jail, but is persuaded by Johnny to go back and stand trial. Johnny rescues Alibi and the two work together on clearing Cameron's name, and bringing the real culprits to justice.
A man who's a dead ringer for the leader of an outlaw gang kills the gang leader, then takes his place to try to bring the gang to justice.
Marshall "Big Jim" Cole turns in his badge and heads to Wyoming with his family in order to settle on some land left him by a relative. He faces opposition both from a neighbor who wants that land for his own sons, and from a grizzly bear nicknamed "Satan" who keeps killing Cole's livestock.
Jerry Johnson inherits a 50,000 acre ranch. Lucky Miller wants to take over the ranch. Roy is trying to get a railroad spur right of way. Lucky has a woman come west to marry Jerry to get control of the ranch. After the wedding, Lucky has the owner killed. Roy’s gun is substituted for the murder weapon, so Roy is put in jail.