Report reaches the US cavalry that the Apache leader Ulzana has left his reservation with a band of followers. A compassionate young officer Lieutenant DeBuin is given a small company to find him and bring him back; accompanying the troop is McIntosh an experienced scout and Ke-Ni-Tay an Apache guide. Ulzana massacres rapes and loots across the countryside; and as DeBuin encounters the remains of his victims he is compelled to learn from McIntosh and to confront his own naivity and hidden prejudices.