Carlisle, an enigmatic drifter, is headed back west when he happens on the small South Dakota town of Salamander. In the local diner, he meets the unhappily married Gally Deveraux and then becomes entranced by ethereal outsider Susanna Benteen. Carlisle decides to make his home in Salamander so that he can avoid "the great economic colossus called progress." But in the hope of invigorating the area, a plan is afoot to build a highway that will run right by Salamander and through Carlisle's house. Feelings about the highway divide the town, but Carlisle is determined to fight.