After suffering the loss of their son, retired Sheriff George Blackledge (Costner) and his wife Margaret (Lane) leave their ranch in Montana to try to rescue their grandson in Dakota. The boy is under the guardianship of the powerful Weboy family, as the daughter-in-law has remarried another man. The matriarch Blanche Weboy, after discovering the Blackledge’s intentions, decides to do everything possible to prevent the boy from returning to her grandparents.