Shortly after graduating from college, and searching for a fresh start, a young forester is assigned to a new job in a remote area of northwestern Montana. The locals, a hard-working, hard-living, idiosyncratic lot take on the task of educating their new co-worker in ways he never imagined. Just as he becomes attached to his new surroundings and the quirky inhabitants, new technology threatens his job and news of a new hydroelectric dam is planned a short way downstream will destroy the entire valley.