Young Ben Logan, his family lost in the Civil War, sells his Texas ranch and heads West. In search of copper, Ben scales Mount Baldy in Moreno Valley and finds a Ponderosa pine with the word "DISCOVERY" carved in its bark, just before he makes a startling find.

Standing on a high wilderness ridge in northern New Mexico, Blaine Wells, a self-imposed hermit after the horrifying murders of his wife and daughter, is torn from an almost hypnotic absorption with the natural beauty around him by the sputtering engines of a small plane. The helpless aircraft, a fragment of society hurtling into his private paradise, both startles and angers him.

With conflicting feelings, he seeks the crash site where he nurtures the survivors and fights those who would serve their selfish desires at the expense of those less capable. Blaine soon devises a means for their...

Thirteen-year-old Everett stares as his father, found guilty of murder, plunges through the trap door. Believing his father innocent and Wiley Stuart guilty, Everett hunts down the outlaw, but Deputy Marshal Ben Williams wrests away the prisoner and denies Everett all hope of clearing his father.

Dale Rory arrives in Paddock in the heart of West Texas cattle country, in pursuit of his dream of coaching basketball and owning a cattle ranch, something his recently deceased and highly principled parents had encouraged. Believing his faithfulness to their teachings has led to past accomplishments, he is equally convinced that they are his compass to future success. Hired by the school, he buys a four-hundred-acre spread, but aware of his need for help, he seeks out his neighbors, Sybil and Marilyn Stone. Sybil, a widowed rancher seasoned by hardship, brusquely doles out advice, but Dale...