An unscrupulous timber baron, Jim Fallon (Kirk Douglas), plans to take advantage of a new law and make millions of dollars from Californian redwood trees. Much of the land he hopes to grab has been homesteaded by a humble Quaker colony, who try to persuade him to spare the giant sequoias... but these are the very trees he wants most. However, Fallon finds that other sharks are at his own heels, and forms an unlikely alliance.