Illiterate fur trapper Joe Bass (Burt Lancaster) is coerced by some Kiowa Indians into trading his haul for a well-educated, escaped slave named Joseph Lee (Ossie Davis). Bass seeks to track the Indians and recover his treasure, while Joseph wants to travel to Mexico, where slavery is illegal. Their plans are complicated by the arrival of a band of scalphunters, led by Jim Howie (Telly Savalas), who want to kill the Indians, claim the furs and resell the black man.