After meeting the warm, closeknit McFadden family, Ben Shepherd, a guarded man who keeps his past and personal life a mystery, finds it hard to believe that Brian would want to give it all up for alife of wandering the west, alone. But Brian, restless and anxious to split from the ranch falls in with a brawling loner, who seems to,lead the kind of life that Brian is looking for. Meanwhile, Evan loses concentration in football practice because he is too busy with the cheerleaders. He is ordered by the coach to spend a week in the girls' dance class--some ""punishment"".

Angry marijuana growers open fire on the McFaddens as the brothers begin searching the hills with the police, who are looking to bust a large-scale pot-growing operation in Carbon County. While his older brothers are risking their lives trying to find the hidden marijuana fields before they can be harvested, Guthrie confronts a couple of older boys at his junior high who are forcing younger kids to buy ""weed"" from them.

Adam has never had the proper car to win the Gold Rush Race, but this year has found one. When Hannah tells the family that she is three months pregnant, Adam decides to drop out, not wanting to risk his life racing on the hazardous back-country dirt roads. But Hannah, who knows how much ther ace means to Adam, insists that he go through with it. Adam burns up the road racing against a professional racer, unaware that Hannah has had complications and has been rushed to the hospital.