The film is narrated by the adult Mattie Ross (Elizabeth Marvel), who recounts that in the late fall of 1877, when she was 14, her father was murdered in Fort Smith, Arkansas by one of his hired hands, Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin). Chaney made off with her father's horses and two of his California gold pieces. While collecting her father's body, young Mattie (Hailee Steinfeld) inquires about a Deputy U.S. Marshal to hire to track down Chaney. She is given three recommendations, but chooses to hire Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), because he is described as the most merciless. He repeatedly rebuffs her attempts to hire him, believing that she doesn't have the $50 with which to pay him.
