After the end of the Civil War, young hotblooded George Armstrong Custer (Robert Shaw) heads out to the American west with his wife Elizabeth (Mary Ure) to seek out the action and glory he badly craves. Put in command of the Indian-fighting Seventh Cavalry in the Dakota Territory, Custer receives a secret visit from his politically-connected former superior office, General Philip Sheridan (Lawrence Tierney). Sheridan instructs Custer to destroy a Cheyenne village. The attack goes bad: Native women and children are slaughtered, and some of Custer's undisciplined troops desert when they find gold. Custer takes the blame. Command of the 7th goes to the reckless Major Reno (Ty Hardin), but Custer is put back in charge in the run-up to a major confrontation with the angry Indians at Little Big Horn.