It's 1835. Chris Dahlberg goes to live with his grandfather the day that his mean-spirited uncle bars him from his homestead. After a long Minnesota winter, Chris is persuaded that the best chance he has of caring for his elderly grandfather is to harvest the timber on his grandfather's land and drive the logs down the spring floodwaters of the Mississippi to the markets in the new frontier town of St. Louis. People say it's impossible, especially for one boy alone...