Brett Tompkins leaves his home in Baltimore to spend his twelfth summer with his father in a logging town named Snow Shoe, West Virginia. His father, a banker by trade, has taken over the family logging company at the request of Brett's grandfather who is no longer able to operate it due to failing health. But mother is not happy with this and gives him only a year to try it out. Reluctantly, she allows her son to spend the summer with his father at Snow Shoe. During the summer of 1879, Brett meets new friends and new adventure at Stewart Creek Logging Company, and comes to enjoy life in the mountain country. But can he convince his mother, a city woman, to visit and, hopefully, feel the same joy for the mountain country that he had come to feel.