After her husband dies in a fire, a woman (Susan Hayward) is left to tend for her young son and the family farm on her own. Soon, she takes in a drifting handyman, they fall in love, and a resentment begins to build between the son and his new "step-father" who treats the boy harshly on purpose to prepare him for life on the frontier.
Susan Hayward
as Mary Sharron
Stephen Boyd
as Fred Carter
Barbara Nichols
as Mayme Radzevitch
Dennis Holmes
as Robbie Sharron
Theodore Bikel
as Dr. R. W. Gibbs
Ken Scott
as Sergeant Le Moyne
James Philbrook
as Henri
Florence MacMichael
as Mrs. Bedelia Gibbs
