When New York Assemblyman Cyrus Carter votes for 'Forever Wild' legislation in 1885 to preserve State land, the lumber companies attempt blackmail to prevent his reelection. The plot almost derails his marriage. It takes an amendment to the New York State Constitution ten years later to protect the land. John, Mary Carter's oldest son, returns to the Adirondacks from Chicago in 1887, angry over the hanging of the men accused of the Haymarket bombing. In the spring of 1889, he is hired by JJ Schuyler, a wealthy New York banker to head the construction of a great camp on the one thousand acres Schuyler has purchased from Paul Smith on the west side of Upper Saranac Lake. Schuyler forbids John and other locals to hunt and fish on his land, even during the eleven months of the year when the Schuylers do not occupy it. John is caught between Ophelia, Schuyler's daughter, who professes her love for him, and his workers' anger over her father's no trespassing edict. Instigated by his paraplegic brother, Tommy, John and a few friends take the law into their own hands with tragic consequences.