When Ike Murdo fetches up in Chickasaw, looking for work, he's taken on at the U-V-Cross - only to find himself falling in love with its owner, the widowed Minerva Vogel. The affection proves mutual, and her two young children also warm to Ike. Everything seems to be going well. But Kameron Kruger of the neighbouring Bar-Bar-K is using more than his legal share of Hatfield Creek, depleting the U-V-Cross's water supply, and threatening to start a range war...