Before the Civil War, Jere Lynch and Betty Summers, children of feuding Kentucky families, secretly pursue a romance. When Jere is knocked unconscious trying to stop Betty's father Horace's runaway horses, the man discovers Betty's picture in Jere's locket and warns that he will kill him if he speaks to Betty again. After Betty's brother Ben kills Jere's father and Jere kills Ben in a duel, Jere leaves for the West and vows to send for Betty, but Jere's sister writes him that Betty has married another, then tells Betty that Jere is dead. Jere then marries Ray Saunders, an immigrant he rescued from a buffalo stampede, and Betty marries her cousin Cal Brown. After Jere and Ray die during an Indian massacre, their son John Smith grows up to marry Betty's daughter Betty Brown, who comes West to stake a claim. The birth of their son, Summers Lynch, ends the family feud.
—AFI