After suffering a great personal loss, 25-year-old Theodore Roosevelt abandons New York politics for the lawless Dakota Badlands, where he plans to become a cattle rancher at the height of the Beef Bonanza. The former politician must now navigate a dangerous path through the Badlands, where his youth and physical frailty make him an easy target. Upon arriving in the frontier town of Medora, he immediately squares off with a gunslinging bully. Time and again, Roosevelt must prove his strength on the forty-mile journey to secure the property for his cattle ranch. Along the way, he is haunted by memories of loss, and he survives a first encounter with a powerful and deadly landowner, the Marquis de Morés. With the help of his lumberjack mentor, Bill Sewall, and his cowboy partner, William Merrifield, Roosevelt establishes the sprawling Elkhorn Ranch. The adventures and hardships of building Elkhorn will transform the young Roosevelt into a true cowboy and set him on a path to greatness.
