Chris Hale has loaded up on supplies because he has learned the Army has closed the normal trail so the wagon train is forced to take a difficult and dry route through the desert. Judge Arthur Forbes questions Hale's decisions, as do others. Geneva Balfour ignites a fire in hopes she and her husband Aaron will turn around and head east.

After being fired and setting a bomb which kills his tyrannical boss, Grover Allen joins the wagon train and heads west with his widowed daughter-in-law Della and grandson Jeff. A detective searching for Allen joins the wagon train.