Mark Twain, his wife Livy and daughter Clara, along with Major Pond and his wife take the Montana Central Railway from Great Falls, Montana to Butte, Montana. The video touches upon a number of historical events and locations along the way. The train passes Egbert Malcolm Clarke's ranch, whose death touched off one of the bloodiest massacres perpetrated by the US Army. The train travels through a Missouri River canyon that experienced a major dam failure. The video also touches on the silver mining financial bubble that burst just two years before Mark's visit.

Mark is the very first guest at the Crookston Hotel, in Minnesota. He gives a show there then boards the Great Northern Railway train for Great Falls, Montana. He travels through the wheat fields of North Dakota then the high plains. The route follows the Missouri River from Williston to Fort Buford, then through the Glasgow region of Montana past Fort Assinaboine to Fort Benton, then into Great Falls. We sample bits of the history of the railway and of the native peoples displaced by it.