The year is 1960. Bill Pengallen, a young college student, has taken on a summer job working on a fire suppression crew for the U.S. Forest Service in the California mountain town of Truckee, where he meets and becomes friends with Mike Cameron, a pre-Med student. It is the third dries summer in the area's history, the forest is a tinderbox. An Interstate highway is being thrust through the area, fire danger threatens the livelihood of ranchers...