 Veteran logger Steve Blake (Charles Bickford) helps city-bred Jed Malone (Gordon Oliver) obtain a job with the logging crew of Boss Whittaker (Alan Bridge). Jed falls in love with June Martin (Jean Parker), the pretty dishwasher at the boardinghouse ran by Mother Manning (Ann Shoemaker). Steve is also in love with her, but pretends not to notice. Steve and Jed, employed on the same cutting machine, become good friends and Jed saves Steve from injury one day when the defective machine fails. Jed asks June to marry him and she agrees. Before the wedding, the saw fails again and Jed is killed. Steve hammers the machine to bits in a rage and, after breaking the news to June, flays Whittaker for not replacing the defective saw. To cover up his own negligence, Whittaker accuses Steve of killing Jed out of jealousy and then smashing the saw in an effort to cover up the crime. Steve is jailed for murder. June testifies on his behalf and the conscientious Judge Hanley (Lee Prather) aids in freeing Steve. The townspeople and loggers still believe him guilty and make him feel like an outcast. A forest fire breaks out and Whittaker, leading a party of loggers into the woods to fight it, manages to get his men and himself trapped by the blaze. Steve, who knows the woods well, refuses to rescue the men, until persuaded to do so by June.