As we well know many who journeyed west never completed the trip and a common reason for that was death by disease. That's what happens to Susan Brown as she and husband Robert Taylor start west. As a couple they make it as far as the Nebraska plains when she as many others on their wagon train dies of cholera.
Many that are buried on the plain leave no trace of their passing. Taylor plays a determined man to see that his wife is not forgotten. He journeys back to St. Joseph, Missouri to have a tombstone made, selling his horse for the marker and taking it back in a wheelbarrow.
It's a very touching story and Taylor who in his last decade didn't fare all that well with big screen properties, does fine work here both as host and principal player. He may be obsessed with a notion that would seem crazy to some, but Taylor sells the story well and as we know Death Valley Days stories are true.