Sixteen-year-old Jeff can't wait to join the Union Army and fight against Stand Watie, leader of the Cherokee Indian rebels.

When eleven-year-old Dan Deweese leaves home to work on his great-uncle's ranch in Nevada in 1915, he forms an attachment to a wild colt and uses that relationship to try to reclaim six steeldust mares which get stolen by a wild mustang.

Coach Clay Driscoll is a small town basketball coach who seems to have everything going against him-- a team he doesn't want, a town that doesn't support girl's sports and small town politics that threaten to undermine any chance he has of winning. But his pride and his "girls" refuse to let him quit. Both the young women and their hard-headed coach fight for equality and a share of the dream, taking on the town prejudice and their own self-doubt....