The film begins with a U.S. Army fort destroyed and burned as an U.S. Army Cavalry patrol combs the ruins for survivors, but everyone is dead. The commander of the cavalry patrol is dictating a report to his clerk in the office of the fort's commander. Held prisoner in the former commander's office is the Arapahoe war chief, Hanu (Marco Lopez) who led the raid. He will say very little. And all the searchers can find is a single grave and a Colt pistol left behind by a gunman Hanu remembers as a "quiet, lonely man..."