The hot dry summer has been progressing in the Bitterroots with little relief in sight. Sheriff Scott Wilson, former FBI agent, is faced with a murder to solve and keeping an eye on the Forest Fire Brigade. The ten prisoners from neighboring state penitentiaries possess a slight amount of training with timber fires but no actual experience. The crew is in the vicinity of Suddenly, Montana, to prepare rudimentary forest roads to allow access by firefighting equipment. When a woman joins the crew, the character of the group quickly changes.

David Drum, high school senior, and son of the sheriff, is confronted with his own problems, two beautiful young women, twisting his heart in different ways, and assisting his friend, Dexter Young, to make a home from an old barn.

Behind the scenes, Juan Martinez is plotting against one of the brigade members with one goal in mind, a half million dollars.