This is the story of some Modern day Nazi activists who plan to march through the predominantly Jewish community of Skokie. The town officials tell the citizens to ignore them cause there's nothing that they can do. But one citizen (Kaye) who's a death camp survivor says that he was told this nearly forty years ago in Germany and before he knew it he was in a concentration camp. He says this time if they march, he will not ignore them; he will take action. So, the mayor does what he can to stop them, so the Nazi's leader (Dzundza) goes to the ACLU, and the Jewish lawyer (Rubinstein) he speaks to, says that this is a violation of the First Ammendment and takes the case to court.

This western begins with St. Louis resident Lutie Cameron (Katharine Hepburn) marrying New Mexico cattleman Col. James B. 'Jim' Brewton (Spencer Tracy) after a short courtship. When she arrives in "Salt Fork, NM" she finds that her new husband is considered by the locals to be a tyrant who uses force to keep homesteaders off the government owned land he uses for grazing his cattle--the so-called Sea of Grass. Lutie, has difficulty reconciling her husband's beliefs and passions with her own.