Drama starring Myrna Loy and Robert Mitchum, based on a screenplay adapted by John Steinbeck from his early novel of the same name. Ten-year-old Tom Tiflin (Peter Miles) lives on a ranch in California's Salinas Valley with his mother (Loy), recently-returned father (Sheppard Strudwick), maternal grandfather (Louis Calhern) and handsome hired hand Billy Buck (Mitchum). In an attempt to get closer to his son after his long absence from the ranch, Tom's father gives him a much longed-for pony. But as the pony becomes the central focus of Tom's life, the family is driven apart as Tom turns to Billy for help with rearing it.