Edward Zwick directs this drama starring Anthony Hopkins and Brad Pitt. US Cavalry officer Colonel William Ludlow (Hopkins) takes early retirement after despairing of the Government's treatment of the Western Tribes. In the remote foothills of the Montana Rockies he builds a ranch where he brings up his three sons. When his youngest son Samuel (Henry Thomas) returns from the city with his beautiful fiancée Susannah (Julia Ormond), she attracts the attention of his older brothers Alfred and Tristan (Pitt and Aidan Quinn). After one of the brothers is lost in the First World War, the surviving siblings return home to rebuild their lives, and fight once more for Susannah's love.