Joseph Jessup, "Old Joe", was a buffalo hunter before he married a Pawnee woman and went into the cattle business. The Lazy J Ranch was doing comfortably well by the time he died, and Old Joe left it to his widow May and their son, Young Joe. Every year at roundup time, the Jessups enlisted the help of May's tribesmen. Called "up yonders" by the locals, these Indians hid from the government in order to remain free. But things started to change when Joe died, and now the Jessups need all the help they can get to face a crooked banker and a clan of cattle.