A 13-year-old (Alexandra London-Thompson), her siblings and a friend visit her grandfather (Héctor Alterio) and his sister (China Zorrilla) in South America.

Fate takes a boy (Navin Chowdhry) and his racehorse from 1700s North Africa to the world of French and English kings.

During the 1880s, handsome young cattleman Jim Craig (Tom Burlinson), accompanied by his herd of Australian horses, returns to his hometown of Snowy River to be with his love, Jessica Harrison (Sigrid Thornton). However, Jessica's father, Harrison (Brian Dennehy), steadfastly opposes their relationship, preferring Alistair Patton (Nicholas Eadie), an egotistical banker's son, as a potential suitor. When Patton learns Jessica wants to be with Jim, he sets out to steal Jim's prized horses.

After he loses control of his truck and causes the drunken traffic accident that kills his loving wife, neglectful father and fading rodeo hero Josh Morgan (Ron White) sinks into depression and self-pity. In the wake of the tragedy of his mother's death, Josh's scrappy teenage son, Shane (Zachary Ansley), struggles to pick up the pieces and make up for his father's shortcomings. The Morgan men get a bittersweet second chance when Josh's father-in-law dies and wills them a farm.

Upon breaking out of a dungeon, youthful thief Phillipe Gaston (Matthew Broderick) befriends Capt. Navarre (Rutger Hauer), a man with a strange secret. Navarre and his lover Lady Isabeau d'Anjou (Michelle Pfeiffer) were cursed by the wicked Bishop of Aquila (John Wood), who desires Lady Isabeau for himself. His dark magic prevents the pair from ever being in each other's presence except at twilight, so they enlist Gaston in a dangerous plot to overthrow the Bishop and break his evil enchantment. This film is credited with sparking world-wide interest in Friesians.