Recently discharged after twelve years with their regiment in India, Sergeants Seth Campion and Henry Fowler journey to the Dakota Territory of North America with the intention of pursuing their ideal, by joining the celebrated Colonel Custer and the Seventh Cavalry. However, they arrive in Bismarck, only to learn of the massacre at the Little Bighorn.

They take the stagecoach to the town of Pentecost to seek employment in their former calling, as farmhands. They are successful in this, but life in the West during the 1870s is less than peaceful and often unfriendly, especially towards two Englishmen, and their survival relies heavily on their training and experience as cavalrymen in India.

From time to time, they also feel obliged to assist the weak and vulnerable. This, and their idealistic approach to life invites comparison with the knights of old and, like those worthy champions, they press on, ever hopeful of finding their ideal.