Peek Tillman has grown up in the Florida backcountry and knows that as he does his job of herding cattle to market across the big prairie to the east of the Gulf's Charlotte Harbor, he has to be on the lookout for wild beasts and poisonous reptiles—as well as predators of the human variety. But this time he encounters more than he can figure how to handle, namely a very beautiful young woman, married (unfortunately for Peek) to a real-live archaeologist down from the Northeast, not to mention some greedy outlaws set on taking advantage of the situation. Joined by Chekita Joe, a fierce frontiersman who knows the Florida wilderness even better than Peek, the young cowhand sets out to rescue the Yankees from what he believes is a doomed expedition.