Two travelers meet on the open prairie, and pass their time together by trading stories with each other. Their tales become a sort of competition, each attempting to relate something which might disturb the other.

In February, 1962, as the civil rights movement reaches Bayonne, Louisiana, a New York journalist arrives to interview Jane Pittman, who has just turned 110. She tells him her story dating back to her earliest memories before slavery ended. In between the chapters of her life, the present-day struggles of Blacks in Bayonne, urged on by Jimmy, are dramatized.

一位技术第一，勇气第一，智慧第一的飞行员康白，曾以他的机智与勇气，成为第一位带着航空信件飞越大陆的英雄。然而在一次带领一位银行家和他的女儿蒂莉到爱达荷的任务中遭到不测，飞机坠入山里，由于蒂莉对他的反感，使得在荒凉寒冷的夜里，面对饥饿与狼群仍不愿与他共患难，直到蒂莉遇到了···