Mary-Lou (Ma) Jordan, is a tough, ambitious frontierswoman with a paranoid hatred of Indians. When the story opens, in 1869, Mary-Lou and her two daughters, Ellie-May and Sara-Jane are alone on their small Texas ranch, the Circle J. The ranch is attacked by the Anderson gang, on the run following an abortive bank raid in Fort Worth. Mary-Lou outmanoeuvres them and the Anderson brothers are badly wounded and captured. Meanwhile, Jim, her husband, returns from a cattle drive to Fort Worth with the news that Mary-Lou has inherited a huge ranch (the Flying W) in Arizona. Determined to grasp the...