While scouting the Montana gold fields, Jim Bridger saves a man from a lynch mob, but instead of being grateful, the bitter old man punches Bridger in the face! Turns out, the old man is none other than John Fitzgerald, a trapping companion from Bridger’s earliest days on the frontier, who is responsible for the worst day of Bridger’s life. Decades earlier, when a fellow trapper was mauled by a bear, Fitzgerald convinced the impressionable young Bridger to leave the man to die. Now, years later, Bridger is haunted by the memory, and Fitzgerald’s reputation is in ruins. Despite being punched in the face, Bridger attempts to make amends with Fitzgerald by sharing the tale of his own redemption when he refused to abandon a trapping companion while crossing a barren desert without water.