Phoebe Ann Naylor (Rosemary Forsyth) is about to be wed to Don Andrea Baldazar, El Duce de la Casala (Alain Delon) in Louisiana in 1845. The festivities are broken up with the arrival of Yancey Cottle (Stuart Anderson (actor)) and his relatives, who form a U.S. 2d Stryker Cavalry Regiment#Early organization troop under the command of Cottle's cousin, Captain Rodney Stimpson (Peter Graves (actor)).