Colonel Tucker commands the Rebel prisoners in one northern prison. He’s a man of Georgia and word is that Sherman is laying waste to the south, headed for the area. The offer is made to him and his men that if they swear allegiance to the north, they will be given their freedom and sent west. Cavalry is needed to fight the Apache.

Captain Bradford is the officer who makes the offer, Tucker accepts(and is reduced to Lieutenant) on the promise they won’t have to do anything against Southern people, and the two men become friends on the ride. Also accompanying them is the widow Kenniston, her year of mourning over and headed for California where she has family(she’s Hispanic).

They arrive at the fort and the war of words begins between Kenniston and Tucker. Kenniston is bitter over his brother’s death and his being so far from the war.Things aren’t made any better when Tucker reveals he was with Stuart at Chancellorville and had led the patrol at the front of the charge. He makes it plain he expects them to desert at the first chance, not even convinced when Bradford points they had plenty of opportunity on the ride west when he was the only genuine Union officer.

Things come to a head in the uneasy alliance when Kenniston orders Tucker to form a firing squad to execute and then bury two civilians accused of selling whiskey and guns to the Apache, only for them to learn after the fact that they were, in fact, Rebel agents. Kenniston says he sees no difference in gun/whiskey runners and traitors.

Tucker’s next mission with his men is to escort a wagon train to a river west where they are to turn them over to a California Union company. They plan to head back into Texas after that. Plans begin to come unraveled when they find the widow hiding in a wagon, defying her brother-in-law’s edict that she stay at the fort. He claims a desire to protect her as she’s family, not admitting to himself what his real reasons are for the order.