In the early 1900s, the dream of owning their own land draws thousands of immigrants to the Canadian West. One of them is Billy King, an adventurous youngster who emigrates from England with his family to a rough-and-tumble Saskatchewan town and then over the Rocky Mountains to a very different way of life in Victoria, BC, where he must learn the ways of the sea. With the onset of war in Europe, his life in Canada is uprooted, but not enough to discourage him from realizing his dream of becoming a forest ranger in Alberta's Rocky Mountains. The life-and-death challenges of that unforgiving environment and the diverse people who live there—ranchers, miners, mountain men, and a remarkable native elder—redefine his world. But a devastating personal loss changes his life forever.