The Alps, late 19th century. Greider, a mysterious lone rider who claims to be a photographer, arrives at an isolated lumber village, despotically ruled by a family clan, asking for winter accommodation.

An ambitious lumberjack abandons his saloon girl lover so that he can marry into wealth, but years later becomes infatuated with the woman's daughter.

A young man with only one hand gets a job at a timber camp and falls for his boss's daughter.

Follows the life of a pauper child Vike Nilonpoika from the early 1900's to the 1960s. During this time he works as a lumberjack in Lapland after running away from the despotic master. He soon becomes familiar with hookers, card hustlers and alcohol.

Millioniare Curran, thinking his son too intellectual, sends him west to learn logging at one of his lumber camps. Unknown to his father, Grant Curan is a professional wrestler and easily able to handle the thugs that attack him at the lumber camp. This enables him to stay on the job and he soon undercovers how his father is being cheated by the local boss.

A dramatic recreation of the Johnstown Flood of 1889.