John Wayne is Commander John Breen who leads a regiment of Kentucky riflemen through a settlement of dispatriated French refugee families.  In the mean time Breen falls in love with Fleurette, a French general's daughter.  Black Randolph, a rich and powerful man, also has his eye on Fleurette and will do anything to get her.  As the two men battle it out for her heart, Breen discovers that Randolph is involved in a land fraud scheme to get the French settlers evicted and the courtship battle turns into a full scale war between the righting Kentuckians and the French settlers.