In 1972, a scale of measurement was established for alien encounters.

When a UFO is sighted, it is called an encounter of the first kind. When evidence is collected, it is known as an encounter of the second kind. When contact is made with extraterrestrials, it is the third kind. The next level, abduction, is the fourth kind.

This encounter has been the most difficult to document...until now.

California 1860 and prospector Daniel Dillon (Peter Mullan) has made a fortune in gold and is now running Kingdom Come, a small town built in the heart of the Sierra mountains. He wants to turn the town into a thriving city and to this end he asks Dalglish (Wes Bentley), an engineer plotting the course of the Pacific Railroad Expedition, to survey the surrounding area. But then Dillon's wife (Nastassja Kinski) and twenty-year-old daughter (Sarah Polley), both of whom he had traded for his goldmine years before, arrive in town asking for help. Dillon is overcome with guilt, and leaves his mistress Lucia (Milla Jovovich) in order to seek his wife's forgiveness. Lucia herself then takes up with Dalglish, who tells Dillon that the railroad will not be passing through his town, thereby causing the increasingly-unhinged prospector to reach for his rifle....