This is the story of 14-year-old John Bains and his sister Meg, 13, and the winter they spend working in a lumber camp in the Ottawa Valley. Their father has been killed and they have to find work to support their family. After a long and adventurous trip, the two reach the camp to find it torn by tension between the foreman and the lumbermen. Meg and John are drawn into the fight as the work alongside the shantymen. The story reaches a dramatic end with the dangerous and exciting log drive down the Ottawa River.