On the vast western prairie lived a father and his three sons. The father was a retired cavalry colonel, and the three sons had distinct personalities: the eldest son Alfred (Aidan Quinn) was honest and kind, the second son Tristan (Brad Pitt) was unruly, and the youngest son Samuel (Henry Thomas) was gentle and elegant. The life of the father and son on the prairie changed with the arrival of Samuel's fiancée Susanna (Julia Ormond). Susanna was young and beautiful, which shocked Alfred. He had a crush on her, but Susanna could not help but fall in love with the bold and rough Tristan. Out of moral persistence, they had been suppressing their inner feelings. Things changed until Samuel died heroically on the front line. Tristan loved his brother very much and could not face the reality that he had fallen in love with Susanna, so he ran away from home. Susanna was desperate and agreed to marry Alfred, and Tristan also got married and had children outside the grassland. Things seemed to be calm, but the death of Tristan's wife made things unstable again.