Sara is kidnapped by a backwoods trapper (guest star Victor French) who takes the frightened teacher to his mountain hut for a purpose she had never imagined. Confronted by the rough mountaineer's obvious intelligence, Sara forgets her terror as she learns of his painful past and the reason he has brought her to his wilderness clearing.

Following the death of an old prospector, Sara discovers that he has left her half of his "gold" mine, and his feisty, 14-year-old granddaughter. Sara tries to convince her fiercely independent ward to give up her plan to continue working the mine, but finds that it takes much more than a reasonable argument to sway the strong-willed girl.