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In 1913, in Oklahoma, oil derrick owner Lena Doyle (Faye Dunaway), aided by her father (Sir John Mills) and a hobo (George C. Scott), is stubbornly drilling for oil despite the pressure from major oil companies to sell her land.

It's oil boom time in Oklahoma, and Lena Doyle (Faye Dunaway), a hard-bitten, cyncial feminist has a fight on her hands. The big oil companies don't like the fact that she's working a potentially profitable wildcat rig. Reluctantly, Lena must accept the aid of her estranged father Cleon Doyle (Sir John Mills), and Noble Mason (George C. Scott), the man he hires to help. The three form an unlikely team: Lena hates men, Mason is out for himself, and Lena's father is trying to make up for a lifetime of neglecting his daughter. But together, they take on the big guys and put up a terrific fight.—A.L.Beneteau <albl@inforamp.net>

It's the early twentieth century. Lena Doyle (Faye Dunaway) is an independently minded woman who has no need for others in her life, men or women. She owns a piece of property on the Oklahoma plain on which she is speculatively drilling for oil. She is approached by Pan-Oklahoma Oil who want to pay her for the oil rights to her property, they figure that they easily have the resources to drill a hundred wells, and even if one comes through, it will have made up their investment. Lena, however, vehemently declines their offer, wanting instead to drill on her own terms. Lena's decline of their offer leads to a stand-off of sorts between the two. Although Lena does not want his help, her father, Cleon Doyle (Sir John Mills), who was largely not there for her when she was growing up, hires an itinerant oil worker, Noble Mason (George C. Scott), to be her right-hand man. Lena accepts their help only on the condition that she remains the boss. Of what naive Cleon is unaware, when he hired Mason, is that Mason is the type of person whose allegiance goes to the highest bidder, and as such, he has no loyalty to Lena. But as the stand-off between her and Pan-Oklahoma, led by the vicious Captain Hellman (Jack Palance), increases, as Lena receives unofficial legal advice on the matter, and as Mason begins to get to know Lena, the two may begin to have a different type of relationship, one that doesn't have much of a chance against the wranglings of Pan-Oklahoma unless they strike oil quickly.—Huggo