Wayne plays ex-Confederate soldier Ethan Edwards, an Indian-hater who believes more in bullets than words. He's out to find his young niece, who's been taken captive by the renegade Comanches who massacred her family.
An American prizefighter returns to Ireland in order to forget the past and live peacefully in his village birthplace. He falls in love with the hot-tempered sister of a belligerent neighbor, and trouble ensues over the payment of her dowry.