Jim Stacey, who has fallen in love with Rose, asks her to leave with him, but when she refuses to abandon the train, he stays with her. That night, many of the men leave, taking some of the women with them. When Laurie is raped by a man who believes that her former profession allows him to treat her any way he wants, Buck carries through with his promise and kills the man. Indians circle the wagon train and, although they do not attack, they announce their intention to return later. The journey is every bit as difficult as Buck had predicted. Buck immediately has to send one of the men away when he behaves familiarly with one of the women, and promises that he will kill the next man he catches breaking the rules. After a quick lesson in mule driving, the journey begins. Buck also hires fifteen men to help him get the women to California, warning both the men and the women against fraternization. Maroni, an Italian widow traveling with her nine-year-old son Tony and French-born Fifi Danon and Laurie Smith, two former prostitutes looking for a new life. The 140 women whom Whitman recruits are a varied group, including Patience Hawley, the aging widow of a New England sea captain farm girl Maggie O'Malley, an expert with a gun Rose Meyers, who is pregnant with an illegitimate child Mrs. Buck thoroughly disapproves of the idea, believing that the journey across the country is too hard for women, but when Whitman offers him double his usual salary, he reluctantly agrees.

Whitman hires scout Buck Wyatt to travel with him to Chicago, where he hopes to recruit enough women to provide wives for one hundred men.

The one thing missing is women for the men to marry, which would enable them to set down roots in the valley. Whitman has established a growing ranching community in his California valley.

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