Five passengers in a stagecoach are abandoned by their driver in the desert. Trying to survive, they struggle with illness, thirst, hunger, and the threats posed both by one another and the local Indigenous peoples.
A selfish and prideful young Dutch doctor, through a series of circumstances, comes to learn that he does indeed "need" a higher spiritual being and other people.
A group of US Navy weathermen taking measurements in the Gobi desert in World War II are forced to seek the help of Mongol nomads to regain their ship while under attack from the Japanese.
