
Reeling from the deaths of his wife and mother, 25-year-old Theodore Roosevelt decides his place isn't among the social elite of New York, but on America's frontier. He abandons his political aspirations and heads for the Dakota Badlands, where he plans to become a cattle rancher. While still experiencing overwhelming grief and wrestling with debilitating asthma, Roosevelt draws on the guidance of his lumberjack mentor from Maine, Bill Sewall, and his cowboy partner, William Merrifield. As they work to establish the sprawling Elkhorn Ranch, it is Roosevelt's youth and physical frailty that make them an easy target for local gunslingers, land speculators and cattle rustlers. Along the way, he forms lifelong friendships and begins to remake himself into the man who will forever be identified as The Cowboy President.
When a masked bandit terrorizes the stagecoach line, killing a passenger, Theodore Roosevelt and his Elkhorn men join the citizens of Medora to track down the culprit; clues point to Redhead Finnegan, a petty criminal who is suddenly flush with cash.
When raging wildfires threaten to consume Elkhorn Ranch, Theodore Roosevelt's men take quick action to avoid catastrophe, but many cattle perish; Roosevelt decides to sell some of his remaining stock to the town's founder before the fall roundup.