In early spring of 1833, the smoldering resentment of American settlers in Texas against their oppression by Mexico dictator General Santa Anna/Ana coming to a head. When a decree is issued that no more Americans may enter Texas, William H. Wharton, fiery head of a faction determined on independence or nothing, warns Stephen F. Austin that the time for half-measures is past. Austin, responsible for bringing the Americans to Texas as colonists, reminds Wharton that a settler's revolt against Mexico would dishonor his name and the arrangements he had with the Mexican government. He gets the "Whartonites" to agree to a general convention of all colonists. Almerian Dickinson, biggest land owner in the settlement of Gonzales, deeply in love with his wife Anne, warns Wharton that a bloody revolt would endanger every wife and mother in the colony. He proposes they send Austin to Mexico City to ask Santa Anna to grant Texans a voice in their own government.
When Red Hawk Dugan and his men attack a small wagon train, Colonel Merriwell is killed and the young girl Isobel taken and raised thinking Dugan is her father. Fifteen years later the Colonel's son Jack arrives looking for Dugan whom he learned killed his father. As he hunts for Dugan he meets and falls in love with Isobel only to then learn Dugan is her father.
